Tag: Translations
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Ingeborg Bachmann’s Poetry in translation by Mary O’Donnell 2.
VERILY For Anna Akhmatova He who has never been rendered speechless, I’m telling you, whoever merely feathers his own nest and with words – is beyond help. Not by the shortcut nor by way of the long. To make a single sentence tenable, to withstand the ding-dong of language. Nobody […]
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‘Geasa’ le Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill.
Má chuirim aon lámh ar an dtearmann beannaithe, má thógaim droichead thar an abhainn, gach a mbíonn tógtha isló ages na ceardaithe bíonn sé leagtha ar maidin romham. Tagann aníos an abhainn istoíche bád is bean ina seasamh inti. Tá coinneal ar lasadh ina súil is ina lámha. Tá dhá mhaide rámha aici. […]
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“Rendevous” by Elisaveta Bagyrana.
I discovered your footprints in the sand and to get there sooner I ran legs sinking at the knees, and fell from exhaustion, and when I climbed the hill – in astonishment I was calling, as if I’d seen you for the first time on that unforgettable evening. You filled the entire horizon, for […]
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Máthair Chréafóige, by Helen Soraghan Dwyer.
Earth Mother for Firoana. The plains of Romania Under thirty degrees of heat Stretch to the poplar trees At the edge of the earth. A weathered peasant lady Offers me water, Her toothless smile Mothers me As I rest in the shade. She is a daughter of this soil, Of sun and […]
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Two Book Versions of Julian of Norwich’s Revelation
Middle English is not so Difficult… I thought I had found a treasure today whilst browsing in my local bookshop and coming upon a ‘modernish’ version of the Revelations (shewings of ) Julian of Norwich. Not so!! The book is a 1987 imprint which seeks (or sought) to bring the writings of the Anchoress at Norwich […]
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Some comments on the translation process of ‘An Duanaire, Poems of the Dispossessed’
Often when I write (or speak) about the poetic translation process, which I have done in two posts above quite recently, I have mentioned the necessity of sympathetic or collaborative translation processes. The two links in question will be added in at the end of this short post; UBUWEB and Homad , Ethnopoetics and Translation (i) and Translation and Linguistic Rights (ii)., […]
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“Letter from the Constellation of the Swan” Lilian Ursu.
Letter from the Constellation of the Swan (For Cathy and Donald) Once upon a time, maybe two weeks, maybe two centuries ago in Pennsylvania, a friend telephoned: ‘All evening I heard a strange rustling, as if someone were trying out the word sadness in all the languages of the world. I raised my […]
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“The Immortal” by Elisaveta Bagryana
The Immortal Now bloodless and almost fleshless unmoving , unbreathing, voiceless. With eyes half closed and sunken, what matter if -Anna or Maria, the fine lids will never rise, the clenched lips will not move or ever again utter a moan or sigh. And look how already white and strange is that ring upon her […]
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‘Babylon’, Art and Image.
This image is one of 19 Max Ernst images that grace René Crevel‘s Bayblon, the book is published by Quartet Encounters (1988) and originally published in French as Babylone (1927). The Quartet Encounters translation is provided by Kay Boyle. I am taking the book away with me on a train today because it is a while since I read it […]
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“Comes Somebody” by Nelly Sachs.
Comes Somebody Comes somebody from faraway with a language which perhaps locks the sounds with the neighing of the mare or the chirping of the little blackbird or even as a screeching saw that cuts up all that is near— Comes somebody from faraway with the movements of a dog or perhaps a […]
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