Not brit-po, but recently in Britain, during the Poetry International --
when many on this list were attendant at or performing in more experimental
or avant garde events -- Claire Malroux reading her poems and Marilyn Hacker
their translations. I felt the translations caught the performance feel of
the originals, but hard to know the extent to which that was an achievement
of the performance. The publisher had failed to produce their new book, so
I have no tade-away from which to quote. Hacker has been translating
Malroux since late 1989, and while I'm not competent to read the originals,
I like the poems that the translations in _Edge_ (1996, Wake Forest
University Press) have become. I like them for their sounds, resonance,
play. An example, with relevance to recent discussions here:
======================================
The sea's games
These rivers will not pass over
The slope of a beach
Handwriting scrawled in the margin
The real text intones far away
Closed in on itself
Impenetrable
Scrolls
Words wander on the periphery
Of life blindfolded
Pursuit
Between radiant pain
The milky seed
The heart of the almond
Sometimes a hand
Touches something solid
The players take off their blindfolds
And on that evidence speech
Collects its evasions
======================================
Hope it's not too off topic to quote an American translation of a French
poem on this British poetry list. I'd also be interensted to know what
anyone here knows/thinks about Michael Palmer (and especially his new book
of poems), as it came up earlier this week from Amazon.com when I ordered
something, in the "people who bought this book, also bought" list.
Leona Medlin
----------
> From: Douglas Clark <[log in to unmask]>
> Reply-To: Douglas Clark <[log in to unmask]>
> Date: Thu, 16 Nov 2000 09:09:56 +0000 (GMT)
> Subject: Re: PNR
>
> I should just add that the new PNR looks very good but apart from the
> article on Oliver St.John Gogarty there is not much meat. I did like
> the poems translated from the French by Marylin Hacker.
>
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