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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 handle�pretentiousness, >>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 car�s window >>a covetous arm�s 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. >>Time�s tassels, >>creative as Montecristo�s pistols >>or the river�s 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 "lombríz," "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 >> >> > > >