Thanks to Robin Hamilton for the background on this poem. He's correct in
the facts, though it seems the piece is universally anthologized as an
independent poem, and when it is anthologized, is sometimes identified as a
translation, sometimes not. One of the interesting things about it is that
it is sort of interstitial between being a translation and being an allusion.
I like Robin's version too. One can have a great of fun delivering
something like this at poetry readings among all the poems about children
and cats and grandmothers and gardening and the rosebush outside the
kitchen window.
|