 |
 |
A PS that comes to mind, Doug, my understanding is that Edgar Allen Poe is a great poet in nineteenth century French translation. all the Best Dave 2008/8/29 David Bircumshaw <[log in to unmask]>: > Maybe something like that, Doug. I believe Shelley has cut a role > among some Arabic poets. > > Last year I had the privilege of doing a reading with two Iraqi poets: > the English translations of their work were really dreadful, but when > you heard them reading the originals, the sonic properties were > dizzying. > > At the same time, my cautionary tale would be the one-time reputation > Rabindrath Tagore's work had. I'm told, by those who know, that his > poems in Bengali are just as corny as in translation. T > > Best > > Dave > > 2008/8/28 Douglas Barbour <[log in to unmask]>: >> No disagreement here on that, Dave, but I'm not sure what you found so awful >> about Darwish's statement. >> >> Perhaps many of us in the safe West never had that thought that poetry could >> change others' lives etc., but that doesn't mean such a thought has never >> been thought in bad times, nor that it might not be thought, sincerely by >> the one thinking it, in such places as Palestine or those you mention. And >> that eventually, the rather bitter realization comes... >> >> Perhaps he hoped to be a kind of Shelley? Not knowing that even Shelley >> really didn't manage that...? >> >> Or? >> >> Doug >> On 27-Aug-08, at 4:42 PM, David Bircumshaw wrote: >> >>> I don't know, Doug, I'm not a Palestinian. I feel uneasy talking about >>> Darwish's poems, I can't read or write Arabic, the translations I see >>> do seem platitudinous, it does not of course mean that the originals >>> are. >>> >>> I do know that people find it very comfortable to latch on to >>> suffering elsewhere, and the further away the better, rather than in >>> their own back yards. One of the points in Patrick White's Nobel >>> acceptance speech hits home on that. >>> >>> I can well imagine that there are people in,say, Mansfield, or >>> Anchorage Alaska, or Bognor Regis, or Vladivostok, or wherever, that >>> suffer just as much in their own way as anyone anywhere else. >> >> Douglas Barbour >> [log in to unmask] >> >> http://www.ualberta.ca/~dbarbour/ >> >> Latest books: >> Continuations (with Sheila E Murphy) >> http://www.uap.ualberta.ca/UAP.asp?LID=41&bookID=664 >> Wednesdays' >> http://abovegroundpress.blogspot.com/2008/03/new-from-aboveground-press_10.html >> >> A little planet blues, for the >> deathwatch. >> A season of rictus riffs. >> >> Dennis Lee >> > > > > -- > David Bircumshaw > Website and A Chide's Alphabet http://homepage.ntlworld.com/david.bircumshaw/ > The Animal Subsides http://www.arrowheadpress.co.uk/books/animal.html > Leicester Poetry Society: http://www.poetryleicester.co.uk > -- David Bircumshaw Website and A Chide's Alphabet http://homepage.ntlworld.com/david.bircumshaw/ The Animal Subsides http://www.arrowheadpress.co.uk/books/animal.html Leicester Poetry Society: http://www.poetryleicester.co.uk