Mark Shafer's book of Huerta translations is an altogether bigger and more meditated undertaking, and what I've read of it looks impressive. Mine's a slender booklet of just nine poems, the first three of which are also included in his. I don't think I was aware of the overlap at the time, or I'd have chosen other poems to translate. (My impression is that for these 3 we're not that close but I don't have the book.)
Though there's a kind of sermonizing quality to it I don't warm to, some passages of the Four Quartets strike me as enduringly powerful and not like anything else - section II of Burnt Norton, III of East Coker and V (at least until it reaches "For us, there is only the trying. The rest is not our business"), I of The Dry Salvages... I wasn't really meaning to assert a taste by calling it a modernist poem, but just to refer to the way it's critically perceived. Perhaps there is a perception of Eliot having renegued on Modernism - if so it's passed me by.
Best,
Jamie
----- Original Message -----
From: Mark Weiss
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Saturday, January 21, 2012 1:26 AM
Subject: Re: Chris Hamilton Emery on the elusive nature of a "poetry establishment"
I reread the quartets a couple of years ago because I suspected it had been a source for a truly great devotional poem by Fina Garcia Marruz. Turns out it wasn't. I had never particularly liked the poem, but I'm not much of an Eliot fan in general. On this rereading it struck me as really awful. But I never will understand other people's taste. I suppose it's modernist in the same sense as Stravinsky's Pulchinella. Neoclassicism as modernism.
I'll backchannel. Do you know Mark Schafer's Huerta translations?
-----Original Message-----
From: Jamie McKendrick
Sent: Jan 20, 2012 7:14 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Chris Hamilton Emery on the elusive nature of a "poetry establishment"
I'd second your description of David Huerta - as poet and person. I'd likewise welcome the chance to read your Lezama, Kozer, Espina, and would be glad to send you the chapbook if you b/c me your address.
I'm also grateful for this list of other neobarrocos and will order Medusario - some reasonable prices seem to be there on Amazon .
A propos the 4 Quartets - I suppose it needs the qualifier 'late' - but with that addition plenty have considered it a 'late modernist poem', even a 'late modernist masterpiece'.
Best,
Jamie
----- Original Message -----
From: Mark Weiss
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Friday, January 20, 2012 10:07 PM
Subject: Re: Chris Hamilton Emery on the elusive nature of a "poetry establishment"
Wow. I'd love to see your versions of David. He's a real sweetheart, and his best work is great.
The neobarroco, with which David's affiliated, has been in the forefront in Latin America since the late 70s, and in Cuba since 1939ish. But there's a lot of work that doesn't easily fit into it that's still pretty surprising. I've translated several of the neobarroco, Lezama, Kozer, Espina among them. It's worth looking at Jaime Saenz (off the top of my head), Zurita, Pizarnik, Viel Temperlay, I could go on. A good place to get a quick overview of the neobarroco is the now a generation-old anthology Medusario, if you can find a reasonably-priced copy.
-----Original Message-----
From: Jamie McKendrick
Sent: Jan 20, 2012 3:52 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Chris Hamilton Emery on the elusive nature of a "poetry establishment"
> I can't see how anyone would consider The 4 Quartets a modernist poem.
I obviously don't perceive the same borders but fair enough - it's the first time I've seen the mainstream conceded a major poem. Not my favourite Eliot - but I'll take it.
As for Spanish - you have to start somewhere but I'm beginning to read mas de ultramar, and have translated the Mexican David Huerta (for a chapbook published by the Poetry Translation Centre).
Best,
Jamie
----- Original Message -----
From: Mark Weiss
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Friday, January 20, 2012 8:14 PM
Subject: Re: Chris Hamilton Emery on the elusive nature of a "poetry establishment"
A couple of things. I mean the end of the decade. Auden's presence and the ascendancy of "The Fugitives" played a big role in the US.
I can't see how anyone would consider The 4 Quartets a modernist poem.
Contemporary Spanish poetry is for the most part pretty bad. Contemporary Spanish language poetry is another matter, and it's by far the larger field.
Best,
Mark
