On Feb 16, 2007, at 3:00 AM, Alison Croggon wrote:
> The original, sadly, is beyond me.... But Reynolds - and Mandelstam -
> both quote the poem extensively in English and Italian, so us
> barbarians can get a feel for what Dante's doing with the original
> language. Reynolds uses the Sayers translation, as I suppose she
> would, which strikes me as serviceable and faithful, but somehow
> doesn't have the vim of others.
>
> All the best
>
> A
>
figured I may as well insert my little Dante poem here (it was the
opener for the show I did with nicole peyrafitte 2 nights ago here
in Albany) even thoguh it isn't a snap (though it was, i guess, at
some time) & has been published before:
This afternoon Dante
will be ex-
pelled from Florence —
a good thing as how could he
have written so well
on the far-away imaginary ex-
ile of the comically divine
realms had he not known
what it meant to walk
over a cold January day’s
ground frost, clod-
breaking, heart beating,
from one city to another
— to come to
this: that exile
is but the next step you take
the unknown there
where your foot comes
down
next, in
heaven or on earth
exile is when you can still
lift a foot
exile is when you are not
yet dead.
enjoy,
Pierre
=================================================
"Play what you don't know" -- Sun Ra
=================================================
Pierre Joris
244 Elm Street
Albany NY 12202-1310
h: 518 426 0433
c: 518 225 7123
o: 518 442 40 71
Euro cell: (011 33) 6 75 43 57 10
email: [log in to unmask]
http://pierrejoris.com
blog:http://pjoris.blogspot.com/
=================================================
|