Month: oktober 2017

Reading: Via Velasca by Leonardo Sinisgalli
Leonardo Sinisgalli (1908-1981) studied engineering and mathematics before he became a poet, and they appear to call him the "engineer poet". Here is a collection of his poetry in Italian. I found this impressionist poem about a street, in the translation of W.S. di Piero, and I quote: Via Velasca Years of pounding have nearly Caved ...
The Gods are Back
The gods are back, companions. Right now they have just entered this life; but the words that revoke them, whispered underneath the words that reveal them, have also appeared that we might suffer together. - René Char
Dan komen de miertjes!
Hoe en wanneer moet je je kind voorlichten over de tijdelijkheid van ons bestaan? Zolang je voor het ouderschap nog geen diploma nodig hebt en er geen verplichte handboeken zijn moet iedere ouder dat voor zichzelf uitmaken. Nog staat er geen straf op wanneer we ons kroost te vroeg bekend maken met de verschijnselen van ...
For though I'm small, I know many things, and my body is an endless eye through which, unfortunately, I see everything. - Gloria Fuentes
Reading: I hear that the axe has flowered by Paul Celan
Today, let's dive into a mysterious poem by the great Paul Celan, in a translation by Michael Hamburger. I hear that the axe has flowered I hear that the axe has flowered, I hear that the place can't be named, I hear that the bread which looks at him heals the hanged man, the bread ...
Reading: Female author by Sylvia Plath
An anthology has to have some Plath in it, or so they say. This one convinced me by its metaphorical precision. I would have liked it even if I didn't know the author was Sylvia Plath (1932-1963). All day she plays at chess with the bones of the world: Favored (while suddenly the rains begin ...
Poetry
Poetry is always celebration or its opposite. Making blackness the word for everything: A symbol, a sound, To fill us and to fill the tombs in our midst.
Reading: St. Sava’s Journey by Vasko Popa
The following poem by Serbian poet Vasko Popa (1922-1991) in the translation of Anne Paddington, did impress me. St. Sava's Journey He journeys over the dark land With his staff he cuts The dark beyond him into four He flings thick gloves Changed into immense cats At the grey army of mice Amid the storm ...
Reading: Meeting by Marina Tsvetsaeva
Marina Tsvetsaeva (1892-1941) I read Meeting in an English translation by Ilya Shambat who prepared it for the 110th anniversary of her birth in 2002. Meeting Evening dimmed, like ourselves charmed With this first warmth of the spring. Stirring alive, Arbat was alarmed; With sympathetic tenderness, the kind Gale touched us with a tired wing. ...