Stunning. I must learn Spanish - he said. I've only looked at Paradiso
in German & some essays in English, but it's hard going. "Tetrallegory"
is good - is it in the Spanish or your invention? Might be a good word
at a cocktail party - "Wagner? Don't you think the clues in his
tetrallegory are a tad obvious?"
MJ
Mark Weiss wrote:
> The very same. I wrote a note on L in response to Stephen, but forgot
> to send it. Should be in the mailbox now.
>
> Lezama is beyond wonderful in Spanish. This is a very minor example.
> With great trepidation I plan to embark on a couple of the (much)
> longer poems. Here's the only other one I've translated so far, like
> They Pass through The Night from the book of late pieces published
> after his death.
>
> The Seven Allegories
>
> The first allegory
> is the pig whose teeth are the teeth of stars
> that fly to their sky of low clouds,
> the pig laughing in celebration of its double nature,
> both bacon and laconic questions.
>
> After so capricious a sentence the belch of olives.
> The second allegory
> is the White Goddess fucking a kangaroo.
> He gives her the bite
> which, glorious and painful, defines the bite of lust.
> It�s the lips that are lustful,
> the crystal in the dew of Chritmas makes it so.
> The Inca, on the other hand, wasn�t particularly voluptuous.
>
> Next, the other, the supporting allegory.
> The Wheel of Dew.
> One�s eye become so transparent
> it�s as if we were blind,
> but the Wheel keeps expanding it
> the dew dilating the foliage like an elephant�s ears.
>
> The tetrallegory fills another landing.
> The smaller it gets the brighter it shines,
> until it�s become, as now, a dot, a metallic seed.
> Uniting the splendor and smoothness of surface
> it reproduces itself in drops of splendor
> the coupling justified
> by the birth of those seeds.
> But this unseen and shining dot
> is the fruit of the undivided singular.
> Rain falls on a Roman helmet.
> The resplendant drop in the groove of Pallas� spear
> demonstrates the nakedness of her arm
> and with it she penetrates the rotations of Jupiter.
>
> Blown from that great mouth the waters pour forth.
> From that mouth pours forth the spirit
> that orders the succession of waves.
> It is the fifth allegory,
> like one more guitar string.
> The allegory of Burning Water.
> Water pours forth
> burning shells and roots,
> containing something of fish and fire,
> but it pauses to name the breeze
> carrying it from hut to hut
> burning the forest at the end of those dances
> hidden behind each tree.
> Each tree afterwards will be a speaking fire.
> There where the flame retreats
> the first sliver of marble pours forth.
> The Burning Water demonstrates that image
> was there before man
> and that man (but where?) will acquire
> the Burning Water�s last disguise.
> Theseus brings the light
> the allegorical sextant.
> Light is the first visible of the invisible animals.
> The light manifests itself,
> evidence, like an arm
> penetrating the fish of night.
> Oh manifest light
> to the eye the sun�s rival!
> A felled copse of oaks hides
> light�s prolongations on the cold mantel
> with its immutable objects.
> First and last
> of manifest things. Theseus
> facing the inflexible monster
> carries the evident
> and manifest light.
> The shining mantels
> fall beneath ax blows.
>
> Let us return to the tetrallegory,
> the Metallic Seed.
> Light searching for the roots
> of the oaks.
> Searching for oily resin,
> touched, because of manifest breath,
> by manifest light.
> The Metallic Seed that Licario searched for.
> In resinous light,
> gift of the root struck by the ax,
> the frenzied choral dance begins,
> the city dancing
> in a parade of phallic torches.
>
>
> At 06:24 PM 1/8/2005, you wrote:
>
>> I'd guess he lives in paradiso, am I right, Mark, thou swell, old
>> bean? ;-) Great poem, I agree.
>> MJ
>>
>> Stephen Vincent wrote:
>>
>>> Mark, tho I am not sure how who is fucking who, but I like this poem,
>>> Who is Lezama? Does he live in Yuma? Where does he grow his peyote?
>>>
>>> S
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>>> And I also remember
>>>>> someone on this list said that it is not true that languages like
>>>>> Italian
>>>>> and Spanish need more words than Anglo-Saxon languages in general
>>>>> to express
>>>>> the same concept... which is not correct.
>>>>>
>>>> More that different languages are more or less economical at different
>>>> moments. So, endings indicatiing size (in Spanish -ito or illo or even
>>>> itillo, small, or -ote, large) or gender and number often eliminate
>>>> the
>>>> need for a string of adjectives. But sometimes create problems of
>>>> cultural
>>>> difference or politics.
>>>>
>>>> Here's a translation of a poem by Lezama:
>>>>
>>>> THEY PASS THROUGH THE NIGHT
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> At midnight a station wagon
>>>> filled with musicians
>>>> rattles old stones
>>>> shot through with silver
>>>> like the ones I saw
>>>> when I entered Taxco.
>>>> The fat actress
>>>> and the scrawny romeo
>>>> fall by accident against the door handleï¿œpretentiousness,
>>>> and they tear out their hair--
>>>> screams and bells,
>>>> the flush of a cheek,
>>>> slide to the roar of the piss
>>>> of swimming horses, parasols
>>>> above their inflated haunches.
>>>> Terrestrial brown
>>>> and violet flashes
>>>> boast of the bouncing
>>>> that the street light once deciphered.
>>>> A vacant house,
>>>> theatrically empty,
>>>> invigorates the passing musicians.
>>>> And there beyond the carï¿œs window
>>>> a covetous armï¿œs apostrophe lingers
>>>> frosted with various feathers.
>>>> The great hall clock chimes in,
>>>> bumping into the raucous laughter
>>>> of those musicians sunk
>>>> in their ball-fringed pillows.
>>>> Timeï¿œs tassels,
>>>> creative as Montecristoï¿œs pistols
>>>> or the riverï¿œs deflated sperm sacs.
>>>> And the cock?
>>>> It spread its legs
>>>> pointed its finger
>>>> and crowed
>>>> in the glow of a cigarette.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> The line "the fat actress" translates "la cómica gorda. Cómica
>>>> can also
>>>> mean comedienne, in its sense as dramatic actress or as stand-up.
>>>> But in
>>>> the US women who act have taken to calling themselves "actors," and
>>>> "comedienne" has become at best an ostentation. Little choice
>>>> here--the
>>>> information conveyed by the translation at a minimum has to contain
>>>> gender
>>>> and profession. What would one say, "the fat woman actor who might
>>>> be funny?"
>>>>
>>>> Similarly, "galán enlombrizado," translated as "scrawny romeo."
>>>> Enlombrizado is a neologism based on "lombrÃz," "worm." I'm
>>>> guessing that
>>>> it's meant to mean something like scrwny and smarmy. Galán means a
>>>> heartthrob (Elvis was a galán), a leading man, a lover, a
>>>> boulevardier. So
>>>> it suggests that he plays opposite the cómica, as well as being
>>>> something
>>>> of a player (in his own eyes) and her lover. All in the one word.
>>>> Given
>>>> the chain of theatrical metaphor in the poem I chose "romeo." It at
>>>> least
>>>> conveys smarminess and his sense of his own prowess. The intended
>>>> comedy I
>>>> hoped would be contained in the picture of Jack and Mrs. Sprat
>>>> that's also,
>>>> it seems to me, being conveyed, but only if one reads enlombrizado to
>>>> contain scrawny.
>>>>
>>>> Translating romance languages I often wish that English, rather than
>>>> eliminating the genders of most nouns ages ago and currently
>>>> attempting to
>>>> get rid of the remainder, had gone in the other direction. Maybe
>>>> it's time
>>>> to regender English. And while we're at it, let's restore the
>>>> thee-thou form.
>>>>
>>>> Mark
>>>
>>>
>>>
>
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