POETRY--IT'S NOT MERELY WORDS!

A recent post on POETS ON ADOPTION is Penny Callan Partridge's contribution, which excerpts from her book THE PEOPLE THEY BROUGHT ME: poems in the adoption community. I'm delighted Ms. Partridge contacted me, even as she was just about to enter surgery! Her contribution is really powerful -- my favorite of the four excerpts is her encounter and engagement with Korean-American poet and adoptee Mi Ok Bruining, an encounter that first began when she was facing Ms. Bruining's abhorrence of adoptees using multicultural experiences as a metaphor for their loss experiences: "To Mi Ok, I might have had losses through adoption; but they had not been increased exponentially by the additional losses of country, culture, and language, or by the additional burdens of racial difference and racism. I had not grown up as the only person of my race in my family and my town. I had not been asked by photographers to open my eyes 'wider,' as one of Mi Ok’s poems recounts."

The two poets would come to fashion an epistolary relationship spanning years, until one day Ms. Partridge came across an obituary of Czeslaw Milosz. The obituary inspired another poem that would mention Ms. Bruining, to wit:

In “The Adopted Woman Reads an Obituary,” I was again connecting thoughts about a multicultural person—in this case Czeslaw Milosz, the subject of the obituary—with adoptee experience. The following stanza is one of nine:

I can’t even read the Times
without musing adopted.
Like the death of Czeslaw Milosz
who did translation
but thought you could write true poems
only in your other tongue.
So where does that leave the
adopted who come from Korea
but grow up in English?
Can your mother tongue be
your adoptive mother’s tongue?
Isn’t Mi Ok Bruining
a powerful poet in English?
But look how she incorporates
Korean. The adopted can
surely appreciate this
mixing of two mother tongues
more than anyone.

Mi Ok responded to my obituary poem by sending me a fable she had written about an Irish-American adopted by Asians. This twist to the usual transracial adoption story still leaves me relatively speechless. Is that because it forces me (Irish-American, no less) to imagine myself growing up with Asian parents? Is it because I read this fable partly as the European-American mother of an African-American son? Am I vicariously overwhelmed by the task Mi Ok has taken on: overturning what people are used to, widening their mental horizons, helping them see things in completely new ways, helping them see hard things? Yes to all that and more.

I have apologized to Mi Ok for my silence, but I am sure Mi Ok knows silence can have many causes. Applause, for example, can be merely polite while a silent audience can mean a spell cast that no one wants to break. Silence can mean a nerve has been touched. It can mean awe. On the other hand, if my ongoing conversation with Mi Ok has taught me anything—yes, and if poetry has taught me anything—it’s that words we don’t have today may still come to us over time. So we can keep responding to each other.

Powerful stuff. And I agree in terms of her response to Czeslaw Milosz's opinion. There's more than one way to write poetry -- and sometimes, one writes powerfully specifically because the mother tongue is lost...or fragmented, diluted, slipping away.... I came across this issue somewhat recently whilst reading FRAGMENTS OF A FORGOTTEN GENESIS by Moroccan poet Abedellatif Laabi, translated from the French by Nancy Hadfield and Gordon Hadfield. I could only engage the English translation as I'm not fluent in French -- but I would certainly consider the Hadfield's translations to be poetry in the sense that what comes through (that is, transcending words) is the intensity from which Laabi created his poetry; Laabi's is an intense poetics root source reflecting colonialism and how he once was arrested, imprisoned and tortured by the Moroccan government.

Anyway, I've always thought the intersection of adoption and poetry to be a potent mix, ever more powerful due to its complexities. Read more HERE. And, as always, I welcome more poets sharing their adoption experiences and how it may or may not affect their poems and/or poetics.

TRANSLATIONS BLOSSOM!

Purrrrrr-ed to be part of two Special Issues on Translation! One viz Print and one viz Online, and, synchronistically, both of my translations relate to a language that will forever be alien to me: Math!

First, Vanitas 4 : Translation is out, and I'm excited to be innit! I've admired the gorgeously-produced Vanitas (Editor Vincent Katz; Contributing Editors Elaine Equi and Raphael Rubinstein) since its first issue, and so am delighted they're including my translation thoughts on and translation of a kari edwards poem comprised of numbers and algebraic notations. (An expanded version of this essay and translation is in Footnotes to Algebra.)

Contributors to Vanitas 4 : Translation form a stellar cast which includes: Tim Atkins, Mary Jo Bang, Charles Bernstein, Lindsey Boldt, Augusto de Campos, Sean Casey, Mark Du Charme, Alan Davies, Brandon Downing, Joanna Fuhrman, Kenneth Goldsmith, Jack Hirschman, Jen Hofer, Ron Horning, Lisa Jarnot, Mary Maxwell, David Meltzer, Jess Morse, Ron Padgett & Bill Zavatsky, Ray DiPalma, Charles Perrone, Kit Robinson, Raphael Rubinstein, Ed Sanders, Barry Schwabsky, Cedar Sigo & Sara Bilandzija, Eileen R. Tabios, Mónica de la Torre, John Tranter, Paul Violi, Anne Waldman, Lewis Warsh, Dalt Wonk, Laura Wright, Elizabeth Young, and many more. In addition to poems, there are critical texts, examining the work of Borges and Bandeira, Lorca, Haiku, Pindar’s choral songs for young girls, and the poetry scene of the 1970s. The cover and a special insert were created by Francesco Clemente specifically for this issue.

Second, Guest Editor Anny Ballardini sends out an announcement on the just-released Ekleksographia Wave Two: The Translation Special or for the direct link HERE. I'm delighted to offer what Anny aptly calls "a translation of my son".

Eleksographia, a quite witty exercise in "assymetrical publishing" offers the following Table of Contents -- lovely reading!

· William Allegreeza and Galo Ghigliotto translate three Chilean Poets

· A poem by Dennis Barone and translation of Emanuel Carnevali

· Tom Beckett

· Pam Brown translated by Jane Zemiro and Marie Gaulis

· Peter Ciccariello

· Jon Corelis on Sappho and the Archpoet

· Alexander Dickow translates Max Jacob

· Linh Dinh translates Marco Giovenale

· Joseph Duemer on the Ching Phu Ngam

· James Finnegan

· Farideh Hassanzadeh (Mostafavi) and Christina Pacosz on Nima Yushij

· Jukka-Pekka Kervinen

· Amy King

· Bill Lavender translates Arthur Rimbaud

· Hank Lazer

· Charles Martin

· Zeljko Mitic translated by Zeljko Mitic, Jr.

· Richard Jeffrey Newman translates the Shahnameh

· Biljana D. Obradović translates Bratislav Milanović

· Obododimma Oha tranlates Ogonna Agu

· Michael Rothenberg translated by Vincent Dussol

· Larissa Shmailo translates Yuri Arabov

· Barry Schwabsky translates Paul Éluard

· Elizabeth Smither

· Alan Sondheim

· Yerra Sugarman translates Celia Dropkin

· Eileen Tabios translates her son

· Peter Thompson translates Nabil Farès

· Martin J. Walker translates Albert Ehrenstein

· Joel Weishaus translates Po Chu-I

· Mark Weiss translates Max Jacob

Reviews and Essays

Diether Haenicke reviews The Passionate Gardener by Rudolf Borchardt, translated by Henry Martin
Pierre Joris tries to translate Nabil Farès' Bikini
Henry Martin discusses translating All the Errors by Giorgio Manganelli
Ellen Moody reviews translations of Jane Austen in French
Karl Young presents "Some Functions of Translation in 'The Ideal Anthology'"
Daniel Zimmerman reviews La Vita Nuova by Dante, translated by Emanuel di Pasquale

· Anny Ballardini translates Arturo Onofri

*****

I don't try to write poems about my son just because I have a son. I don't mind writing poems about him, though, if I can address it in a different way than the usual family-type poems I come across. "English Lessons", which appears in Ekleksographia, is an example (thanks for the space, Anny!).

GAZE AT MOI A THOUSAND TIMES

Over at Zeitgeist Spam, the project continues on creating ONE THOUSAND views of my poem "The Secret Life of an Angel" written after Jose Garcia Villa's "Girl Singing". Though a bit flattered, I'm mostly bemused by how such a project has blossomed from a poem that I kinda thought wasn't that hot in the first place (Villa's poem is hot, mine less so). I mean, I think my poem, as a song, really grates in places. Still, look at the participants to date -- AND I do thank you all for improving on my modest effort:

Geof Huth
Rebeka Lembo
³Lolabola²
Mark Young
Ernesto Priego
Sam Bloomberg-Rissman
Robert Rissman
Sheila E Murphy
Jukka-Pekka Kervinen
Rebekah May
Jean Vengua
Lucy Morris/Ernesto Priego
Alan Baker
Franek Wygoda
harry k stammer
Kuei Chiu
Claire Rissman-Sherr
Rupert M Loydell
Ivy Alvarez
Ed Baker
Giles Goodland
Jared Schickling
Mike Cannell
Yichen Chiu
Steve Mitchell
John Bloomberg-Rissman
Cecilia Sophia Ibardaloza
Rolly delos Santos
Tim Gaze (we're looking for you)

Well, I'm grateful and looking forward to the book project that will come out of this (the notes on translation methodologies alone is worth perusing the project). To mitigate my embarassment, I'm just glad the editor/publisher are allowing me to write an "Afterword" where I rewrite (I mean, translate) my own original poem into something less, um, tone-deaf.

Meanwhile, I keep wondering, if a project like this can grow from one of my bad poems, just think of what can grow from a ... good poem! It's not like I've not written a few others pow-ems....

But maybe it's like dating? Does the bad boy vs the good boy still get more girls (so to speak; haven't dated in decades)? And the thing about Poetry is that maturity is not a prerequisite....

John Bloomberg-Rissman is open to more of your translations, mature or otherwise. Email him at J@johnbr.com

AND THANK YOU, JOHN DEAR.

TRANSLATING WITHOUT CAPTURING

I found translation as revelatory as writing an English poem, with the process offering the type of insight possible only through the actual act of creation.

So I finished today my very first essay on translating a poem, and forthwith sent it out! It's a moment. Permit me to file said moment in the blog-as-file-cabinet...

And the result is classic Moi. That is, to translate is to make meaning in another language -- to make meaning, right? Classic Moi, however, translates something defined into an abstract space in the new language, a result whose terms remain perpetually unstable and in flux. I guess that's why it'd be called poetry.

POSITIVELY PREGNANT...WITH HAY(NA)KU!!!!!

I understand February will bring Moi -- y Toi -- some Massive Love! No, not coz of Valentine's Day, but because that's when I see the first draft of the Spanish translation of The First Hay(na)ku Anthology!

I continue to be amazed at the love shown, and shown so swiftly from around the world, to hay(na)ku. Matter of fact, as we prepare the book design for The Hay(na)ku Anthology, Vol. 2, here's its draft BACK COVER TEXT:

Since The First Hay(na)ku Anthology's release in 2005, the hay(na)ku has appeared in many literary journals, anthologies, and single-author poetry collections worldwide. Artists have created visual hay(na)ku. The form has been written in Spanish, English, French, Finnish, Dutch, Tagalog, and Norwegian. It has been taught in classrooms, and the National Autonomous University of Mexico/Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) features an hay(na)ku webpage in their online journal, Periódico de Poesía. Members of UNAM'S Faculty of Literature and Philosophy/Facultad de Filosofia y Letras are also preparing a full Spanish translation of The First Hay(na)ku Anthology for future release. Reflecting the hay(na)ku's continued popularity, The Hay(na)ku Anthology, Vol. 2 is released just three years after the first hay(na)ku anthology. A third anthology is also in the works: THE CHAINED HAY(NA)KU which would present hay(na)ku collaborations among three or more writers. We hope readers enjoy this volume, and are encouraged to try writing their own hay(na)ku! For this poetic form was also created as an Invitation to Poetry.

And a reminder -- join the party, Peeps. Only fourteen (14!) more days to finish then send your hay(na)ku collaboration to what will be yet another anthology featuring the hay(na)ku: THE CHAINED HAY(NA)KU project; details HERE!

THE BIG POND OF NATURE POETICS

How did Anselm Hollo know I adore Radiant Finns? Because a most pleasant surprise awaited me at my country road mailbox yesterday: a package from Anselm Hollo containing his translations of two Finnish writers:

The Edge of Europe / A Kinetic Image by Pentti Saarikoski

and

One And Twenty by Paavo Haavikko

A generous gift, and from a poet I've never met -- but highly respect! I can't wait to dig in fully, and of course I've already started. And this passage from the Translator's Note to Saarikoski's book really resonated:

Saarikoski had withdrawn from the limelight of two decades of being an only-too-enthusiastic big fish in a small pond. With his partner, Norwegian-Swedish writer Mia Berner, he established himself in an old house on an island just off the west coast of Sweden and cultivated his own backyard in a typically troll-like way, superimposing the rich and various, wild and wooly landscape of his mind on the surrounding countryside with its mountain ridges, petroglyphs, caves, and harbors....

Said passage resonates, not because I consider myself a "big fish" (or because what passes as "poetry world" so often strikes one as a small pond) but, given what I'm trying to do here on the mountain with Galatea. Today, I checked my brand-spanking new culvers beneath a new gravel road/parking lot on the property and was very pleased to see them working and being effective against this week's raging storms. From the four culvers (which you Peeps might recall I'd financed by bartering some poetry books - grin), fountain-ous streams of water cascaded over wet rocks and leaves to continue down the fountain into a seasonal waterfall visible from the road. There, too, does Poetry lie and lays.

And speaking of lies and lays, here's my latest list of Relished W(h)ines:

PUBLICATIONS:
SOME HAY, poems by Lars Palm

SELECTED POEMS OF GABRIELA MISTRAL, Translated by Ursula K. Le Guin (University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque, 2003)

PART, PART EUPHRATES, poems by Arpine Konyalian Grenier

CLEANING THE MIRROR: SELECTED AND NEW POEMS by Joel Chace

THE BIRD CATCHER, poems by Marie Ponsot

HAPPY NEW YEAR PROSE POEMS CARD by Mark Lamoreaux

MARY OLIVER POEM HOLIDAY BROADSIDE published/distributed (grin) by Aimee Nezhukumatathil

MAY/BE, poems by Jill Stengel

SCHOOLCHILDREN, investigative journalism by Tracy Kidder

THE LONG WALK: THE TRUE STORY OF A TREK TO FREEDOM, memoir by Slavomir Rawicz

IN A FAR COUNTRY: THE TRUE STORY OF A MISSION, A MARRIAGE, A MURDER, AND THE REMARKABLE REINDEER RESCUE OF 1898 by John Taliaferro

WOODSWOMAN: LIVING ALONE IN THE ADIRONDACK WILDERNESS, memoir by Anne Labastille

DAKOTA HOME, novel by Debbie Macomber

ALWAYS DAKOTA, novel by Debbie Macomber

REMEMBERED, novel by Tamara Alexander

CARRIE'S STORY and SAFE WORD by Molly Weatherfield (I checked out these two self-described "erotic S/M novels" at Ron Silliman's recommendation, viz a footnote to one of his posts -- I was curious as to how theory and sex intersect, having explored this once through my own homage to Dominique Aury; CARRIE'S STORY is more effective for being less didactic, always an occupational hazard when theory is so overtly involved. I guess the porn uptake to "Show, don't tell" is "Embody, don't theorize". This parenthetical is shared for Moi amusement, but also hopefully for yours.)


WINES:
1998 Jacquesson Fils L'Independance Des Philippines
2006 Oberon cabernet NV
1999 Fox Creek McLaren Vale Reserve Shiraz
2004 Blanc Fume de Pouilly Didier Dageneau
2000 Dom Francois Raveneau Montee de Tonnerre Chablis Premier Cru
2001 Chateau de Beaucastel Chateauneuf-de-Pape
1989 Rocche Dei Menzoni Barolo Riserva
2005 Pavi pinot noir NV
1992 Ridge Montebello
2005 Davenport Pinot Noir
2005 Puligny Montrachet
1990 Dom Perignon
1989 Paolo Scavino Bric del Fiasc
2005 Donn Hoff Hermin Holle Brucke Riesling Auslese
2000 Behrens & Hitchcock Chien Lunatique
1989 Ch. Cantemerle
1992 Ravenswood Pickberry

A NEW WAY TO ERASE MOISELF

It's a relief to do something new -- not new Platonically but new for Moi. To wit, I'm starting the research into a project to translate, Spanish-to-English, the works of Venezuelan poet Hanni Ossot. Need to file here some of her linkies (which Toi might wanna check out):

http://noticias.eluniversal.com/verbigracia/memoria/N104/apertura.html

http://www.eud.com/verbigracia/memoria/N241/tercera.shtml

http://www.eud.com/verbigracia/memoria/N241/segunda.shtml

Guillermo Parra sez "Hanni Ossott (Caracas, 1946-2002) was a professor at the Escuela de Letras [School of Letters] at the Universidad Central de Venezuela. A translator of Rilke and Dickinson into Spanish and a poet of astonishing brilliance." Guillermo has translated some of Ossot's poems HERE, including this one:

Nobody

Some flowers for the table

for the earth

the opaque sky

the music



Some petals, pollen, waters

for melancholy

A desert, in back

silence, gravity

and nobody, nobody


June 1988

And that be why Moi am looking forward to erasing herself in this project!

ABSTRACTION AS TRANSLATION

A series of solid, fast decaying sounds are produced with the implementation of dampening techniques. The desired effect is produced after striking the busel, by leaving one’s hand or knee on the flange or the mallets themselves on the busel.
--from Wikipedia's entry on the "Agung"

Which is to say, I reconstituted/re-translated the poem I began as "Chant for kari" into what became "Fado for my Father" in time to read/perform it at yesterday's lovely reading with contemporary Asian American poets. I want to thank Michelle "good sport" Bautista for collaborating viz the agung (a musical instrument from Southern Philippines), allowing the poetics manifestation thus of words deliquescing to music for such can be the power -- and beauty -- of Poetry's own language. A classic unrehearsed collaboration -- in this instance, got off the plane, met with Michelle to discuss the gig two minutes (or was it two seconds), and then just did it.

The agung was an interesting presence, as reflected in Wiki's description of its "decaying sounds." In this translation, I tinkered with translation's decay of the original text -- accepting life's transcience, with which I think kari might empathize -- even as it honored it if the resulting poem maintained its own integrity as abstraction. Obviously, a lot going on, poetics-wise, for this poem -- I should probably do an essay or paper on my translation/sound poem/transcolonialism poetics (transcolonialism? hence, fado) but I need to walk the dogs.

Meanwhile, also returned to California to see that a post I'd blogged from New York hadn't gone through. I replicate it here because the blog is also my file cabinet and I gotta keep these notes somewhere (for another non-blog purpose). Not menched in this post below is my visit to Sharon Louden's new exhibition; details HERE -- highly recommended, in part for the power of abstraction, an abstraction reliant on -- deeply integrated with -- quite specific (figurative for Louden and in my poetics, narrative) references:

NEW YORK BLOG POST 3 DAYS AGO:
Well. I didn't think I'd be blogging whilst in NYC but the hubby brought his laptop so I can do some e-stuff viz the hotel's wireless. Speaking of hotels, so I'm staying in the Chambers Hotel, which I like to do because the Chambers is one of those "art hotels" where contemporary artists' works are sprinkled throughout the hotel rooms, lobby and hallways. I've always loved the idea of the art hotel, in part for providing some support for the artists living and working in one's times - decorating with Picasso? That's for bourgeoise Las Vegas, no?

Still. I think this everytime I visit the Chambers so I'ma gonna write it publicly for the first time (Google me, Chambers, and let me tell you where your art and/or interior design consultants went wrong). Art hotels also are often draped in black or dark interiors so as to hew true to their attempts at chic hip. Thing is, they gotta lighten up in the hallways. Because that's where some of the biggest art works exist and I AM SURE those art works were not intended by their makers to be shown in near-black lighting. You don't need to be architecturally inclined, do youse, to know that setting/context should figure in design?

Next. Whilst meandering about the city, stopped by the New York Public Library on Fifth Ave. and near 40th for their book sale. As with any library book sale, it's hit and miss but I got these books for a buck each, except for the Espada for which I had to pay $2 because it was in hardback:

A MIDWIFE'S TALE: THE LIFE OF MARTHA BALLARD, BASED ON HER DIARY 1785-1812, a Pulitzer Prize-winning history tome by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich

THE BIRD CATCHER by Marie Ponsot (synchronicity: Marie just joined my publisher Marsh Hawk Press' Artistic Advisory Board - which is also to say, I love Marsh Hawk's disciplined eclecticism as evinced by the total list of artistic advisors)

PLANT DREAMING DEEP, memoir by May Sarton

MAYAN ASTRONOMER IN HELL'S KITCHEN, poems by Martin Espada (I am only sorry to say that this book was available for sale because it was deaccessioned by the NYPLibrary. Now, what be the sorry story wid dat?!)

POEMS by Shin Shalom (Israeli poet trans. By Ada Aharoni)

TESSERAE: MEMORIES & SUPPOSITIONS, essay-memoirs by Denise Levertov

So, stop by this library branch - you can get some decent bargains there…

And while on Fifth Avenue, passed by the Philippine Embassy and noticed a painting exhibition. So walked in to see, and it's off mixed media paintings by Dan S. Pangan from the Philippines. I don't know him or of him but he was there, and we were able to have an amiable chat - that type of amiable conversation among strangers where nothing meaningful is said but the obligatory hems and haws to acknowledge the existence of an art exhibition for which I was happy to note "Congratulations" (I am trying to remember the last worthwhile deep conversation I've ever had in any art gallery….must be years now….)

And of course, with internet access, surfed through some blogs. And I noticed that Lorna Dee Cervantes posts a reading report that references my recent participation in LitQuake (Hi Lorna! Someday, we'll actually press flesh!)…which amuses me (maybe, embarrasses me) as it refers to my somewhat skewed performance aspect of my reading - where I, as Lorna reports, tore a page from my book. Thing is, I actually had intended to tear up many pages, crumple them into balls, and toss them at the audience as part of reading the words from a poem "edit / edit it down / edit edit edit" etc. But I'd not rehearsed this performance (as Joseph Lease aptly said afterwards, Of course I wouldn't have rehearsed tearing pages out of a book), and so I hadn't realized until I tore that first page that it was more difficult than expected.

My generous publisher had a decent paper stock in The Light…so it was actually kind of awkward to tear out a page. So I only did it once. It made bookmaker Lorna wince - and I also have to say, I've been going over the conceptual idea more and more in my mind. I had thought of it as part of the fleetingness of poetry, making it evaporate and all that. But maybe I angered the poetry-playing angels and so they're sending me a message: Don't tear up the poetry book!

She cocks her head up at the ceiling. The angels glare at her. She thumbs her nose up at them: Oh yeah: we all know how obedient I am…. Snort.

Where was I?

On this trip, I'm reading, among others, Jennifer Moxley's impressive autobiography THE MIDDLE ROOM which is impressive and not just because it's 633 pages. LOVE THOSE POETRY BRICKS LOVE 'EM LOVE 'EM LOVE 'EM!!!! Y'all should check out this project - I love the intended and manifested ambition!

Also stopped by the relatively new Time Warner Building at Columbus Circle coz I needed a cuppa and so decided to check out Border's (sorry; I do intend to go downtown to the indie and used bookstores later). But while there, bought BANKER TO THE POOR by Muhammad Yunus - you all should know of him of course as the Nobel Peace Prize recipient for his ideas on micro-lending for battling world poverty.

In typing "world poverty", I first typed "word poverty." But of course the slip is apt. When I discovered, for example from my trip to the Philippines, that only 20% get to graduate high school, such of course has consequences for poverty, not just economically but psychologically; as regards the latter, I'm also referring to my small involvement in bringing kids' books to poor children in the Philippines. Suffice it to say that I love books.

And that I love poetry so much it even makes me tear up my own poetry books.... Click again on Lorna's link for her lovely Mission poem that ends:

An aroma of growth
in the opalled puddles
Your dream or mine?
Your poem or the fine
wine of tomorrow
and sage, winter
and age.

Opal references always remind me of surrealism, which leads me to lead you to more LIGHT, city lights, HERE.

THE BOOK THAT WROTE ITSELF

THANK YOU, Chris Murray, for this post. Actually, we all know Chris Murray is the one who "rocks!"

Chris' post actually hearkens a dimension ("hearkens a dimension"? Sorry, this is in the midst of JUST the first cuppa java of the day) of The Light ... which I've been discussing recently backchannel with some of youse. You know that saying about how a Poem writes itself? Well, The Light... is one where the Book wrote Itself (who'da thunk it'd have such a huge ass?).

"Because I am stuck in the swamps of the unutterable," to paraphrase Rebeka Lembo, I told the Book: Go Ahead: Write Yourself!

So, for example, when one of Chris' students, Cody McAfferty of Austin, Texas wrote a hay(na)ku on death, that came to be part of the book.

Relatedly, a Peep had asked why, in various parts of the book, more than one version of a translation was presented (with Rebeka Lembo's involvement as translator, for which I'm grateful). For example, Rebeka translated some of the poems as much as three times in the same language.

I said, "I could say that I'm not sufficiently fluent in Spanish to choose among the three versions, and that would be true. But more significantly, I wanted the Book to write itself so when a translator presented (unexpectedly) three versions of the same poem, I featured them all. And it synchronistically reflects how we often have to try to say something more than once before we can say what we mean (and sometimes we continue blathering and still are unable to say what we want to say)."

Jose Garcia Villa once wrote a powerful poem about a pianist with no hands....

It's also interesting to see what people choose to highlight among the poems in the book, in this case, Chris chose a collaboration with Nick Carbo -- "SUN RISE!"

And the sun has risen.

TRANSLATION POETICS (#10)

A lovely publisher has given me an open-ended offer to publish my hay(na)ku drawings online. Thank you, Publisher-Peep.

I replied that I have to think more about that possibility. I drew the hay(na)ku against the pages of a Tiny Book (as I happened to be working on them at the time the idea surfaced). But what this means is that integral -- or so it seems -- to the form of the drawings are their placement on book pages. What this means:

--some of the drawings play with, disrupt, subvert the edges of the page. They float off, fall from, and/or metaphorically extend the edge of the page.

So I'm not sure how the drawings would translate to a flat-screen online reproduction.

And yet, the impossibility of such translation....has never prevented translators from, um, translating!

And so, rather than say No (or No, Thank you), the challenge now is to think instead about how the translation might occur. And this path, too, is something I learned from Poetry: the poet says what is impossible to articulate; the poet translates the untranslateable.

As I was just saying to another Poet this morning who wanted my feedback on a brilliant concept he'd concocted, "Fortitude is precious."

*****

Speaking of hay(na)ku,

"THE HAY(NA)KU IS FRIENDSHIP"

as Ernesto illustrates HERE. I love that about the hay(na)ku -- how it can compel others to respond by also de facto writing a poem because they want to play a la the children's rhyme Isa, Dalawa, Tatlo, Ang Tata'y Mo Ay Kalbo... (Trans.: One, Two, Three, Your Dad is Bald...").

hence Your Invitation Here. Let's Play!

HAY(NA)KU AT PERIODICO DE POESIA!!!!

THIS is muy mucho kewl!

Peeps: no need to be fluent in espanol to enjoy the Spanish translations of various hay(na)ku from The First Hay(na)ku Anthology -- available at Periodico de Poesia associated with the National Autonomous University of Mexico/Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM). Congratulations to the translated authors:

Michael Chmielecki
Craig Freeman
Harry K. Stammer
Crag Hill
Jill Jones
Tom Beckett
Sheila E. Murphy

(UPDATE: I've been advised that, actually, ALL of the poems in The First Hay(na)ku Anthology have been translated into Spanish, so that what's on the Periodico De Poesia website is just a sample. The entire book's been translated! Yay!)

Y Muchas Gracias indeed to the wonderful translators Argel Corpus, Rebeka Lembo, Liliana Andrade, Itzel Rivas, Melisa Larios, Alfredo Villegas, Luis Felipe Alvarez, Alejandra Navarrete, María González de León, and Álvaro García. The translators are part of UNAM's Faculty of Literature and Philosophy/Facultad de Filosofía y Letras. The translations come out of the Modern Literature Department. All the translators study English Literature, including U.S., British and Canadian Literature.

Since I use Moi Blog as a File Cabinet, I am going to copynpaste the Introduction and Translation Seminar Note here (which Yo no fully comprehend but sounds muy inteligente anyway, eh?!) -- but do go direct THERE to enjoy:

Introduccion:
En las últimas páginas del libro The First Hay(na)ku Anthology (2005) los editores Jean Vengua y Mark Young decidieron incluir las palabras de Eileen Tabios para explicar el hallazgo, el desarrollo y la difusión de una nueva forma poética, el Hay(na)ku. De acuerdo a Tabios todo brotó de una idea que Jack Kerouac escribió en una de sus cartas: “Creo que los haikus estadounidenses nunca deberían tener más de tres palabras en un verso.” La poeta pensó que no era suficiente e hizo que el cuerpo del haiku sufriera una cirugía mayor. Si la característica del haiku norteamericano eran las tres palabras por verso, entonces la del filipino sería el número definitivo de palabras por verso, es decir, el verso uno, tendría una palabra, el verso dos, dos, y el verso tres, tres.

El nacimiento del Haiku filipino fue anunciado en el blog de Tabios, “winepoetics.blogspot.com”, y pronto se esparció por todo el mundo. Tabios decidió renombrar a su Haiku filipino con un nombre más largo y pomposo: Philippine Independence Day - Pinoy Haiku, pues el anuncio de Tabios ocurrió un doce de junio, día de la independencia de Filipinas. Afortunadamente, el poeta filipino Vince Gotera escribió en el blog de Tabios sus dudas acerca del nuevo nombre: “Apropiarse del nombre “haiku” presenta muchos problemas prosódicos y postcoloniales (y me refiero a la ‘colonización’ de las Filipinas hecha por los japoneses, entre otras cosas)¨ y sugirió: “Quizás la version Pinoy podría llamarse ‘hay(na)ku’.”

Parte del gozo de traducir los hay(na)ku de The First Hay(na)ku Anthology es la novedad de la forma y el descontrol que causa en quien lo lee. Más de un lector pensará que el hay(na)ku es un experimento banal y que su traducción es indigna pero la verdad es otra: quien lea, escriba y traduzca un hay(na)ku se encontrará con las mismas dificultades técnicas con las que se encontraría al leer, escribir y traducir un soneto o una sestina.

Y es que las formas poéticas, cualquiera que éstas sean, son artificios verbales que para que funcionen correctamente tienen que engañar al lector hasta el punto en donde sus estructuras se esfumen en el aire y lo dejen solo frente al efecto. Esto mismo, por supuesto, se pretende con su traducción. En México el hay(na)ku también entró por la red. Ernesto Priego esparció el hay(na)ku a través de su blog, “neverneutral.wordpress.com”, e inmediatamente hubo respuesta de colegas y alumnos suyos. Cabe mencionar que Priego es el autor del primer libro completo de hay(na)ku, Not Even Dogs.

Nota publicada en El Seminario
C.U., 29 de mayo de 2006
Todavía en nuestro idioma la palabra hay(na)ku es extraña y, por lo tanto, difícil de definir. Digamos, por el momento, que nombra una forma poética cuya mayor característica es su aparente banalidad: primer verso, una palabra; segundo verso, dos palabras; tercer verso, tres palabras. La banalidad de la forma se destruye cuando surge una de las características más atractivas del hay(na)ku, la inmediatez. Ésta, obviamente, sería impensable si el hay(na)ku no propiciara el lirismo. Digamos entonces que en la palabra hay(na)ku coexisten tres momentos: la extrañeza, la inmediatez, y el lirismo.

Las traducciones que aquí se presentan fueron realizadas por los miembros del Seminario de Poesía y Traducción de la Facultad de Filosofía y Letras. Cada una presentó el mismo grado de dificultad, y de gozo, que presentaría la traducción de un soneto o de una sestina. Y como sucede con cualquier traducción, éstas, esperamos, tendrán resultados múltiples: divulgar, reflexionar sobre la actividad de traducir, y hacer del hay(na)ku una forma posible en español.

...and the Chatelaine coos and coos at her mischievous hay(na)kus...as they spread their love all over this wide, diverse universe...coooo...

I'MA TICKLED PINK

because POEMELEON: A JOURNAL OF POETRY just released a new issue revolving around the theme of poetic forms. I'm naturally pleased to see my poems, with Spanish and Italians translations by Rebeka Lembo (thanks Rebeka!!!). But I'm even more tickled to see the hay(na)ku listed along with such forms as the

-sound ghazal
-glosa
-nonce 
-blank verse
-villanelle
-sonnet
-trimeter
-palindrome
-pantoum
-dimeter
-triolet
-syllabics
-sapphics
-terza rima
-sevenlings
-linked diminishing line tercet nonce form
-concrete poem
-borrowed free verse form
-nesting poem
-sestina
-sermon
-ballad 
-ethere
-double sonnet
-haiku
-iambics
-accentual verse
-anglo-saxon verse
-tanka/tanrenga
-ballade
-iambic pentameter quatrain
-epithalamion villanelle
-ghazal
-rengay
-rondeau
-long hymnal stanzas
-nonce tetrameter/pentameter quintet

So if some of the above forms are not known to you, Poemeleon offers a chance for your discovery!

TONGUE BLATHER

Thing is, je ne parle pas Italian so I didn't learn until today that my poems have been translated into Italian. I found out while getting a Translation Commentary from Rebeka Lembo who did the translation. It's a good thing I found out so that I didn't present the translations in moi forthcoming book as just Spanish, which I'm not fluent in either (though with Spanish, unlike with other non-English languages, I don't mind bastardizing it to comply with the fabulous tradition of Pinoys "fish"-ing in Espanol).

I just thought I'd note that since I was sure YOU would want zu wissen.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, OTOLITHS!

OTOLITHS, Issue 5, is now LIVE!

I am very grateful to Ernesto Priego and Paolo Manalo for providing Spanish and Tagalog translations of my poems.

Ernesto also offers 5 original poems; his "Verbal Countries" opens with

I don't write poesía en español
because I have stopped believing in origins.

I try, instead, to look for futures I obviously don't have.

and reminds me of what I was fumbling towards when I thought to write translations in "Diasporic Ilokano" versus (pure) "Ilokano".

Anyway, CONGRATULATIONS to Mark Young for the First Anniversary of Otoliths! Here's the official announcement:

ISSUE FIVE OF OTOLITHS
has just gone live, which means it's a year old today. It's also May Day, so arise & join in a chorus of The Internationale with Paul Siegell, Andrew Topel, Jordan Stempleman, Ernesto Priego, Paolo Manalo, Eileen Tabios, Jeff Harrison, Katrinka Moore, Corey Mesler, Raymond Farr, Steve Rodgers, Robert Lee Brewer, Mark Cunningham, Martin Edmond, Steve Timm, James Sanders, Audacia Dangereyes, Thomas Fink, Spencer Selby, Maria Zajkowski, Richard Lopez, Marcia Arrieta, Tom Hibbard, Matina Stamatakis, Louise Landes Levi, Márton Koppány, Anny Ballardini, Jill Jones, Craig Santos Perez, mIEKAL aND, Dax Bayard-Murray, Ed Schenk, MTC Cronin, Alana Madison, Alexander Jorgensen, Andrew Taylor, Carol Novack (& Stan Crocker), Stephanie Green, Maurice Oliver, Caleb Puckett, David-Baptiste Chirot, Derek Motion, James Maughn, Michael Rothenberg, Tom Beckett, Nick Piombino & Richard Kostelanetz as they "change henceforth the old tradition".  Enjoy. Mark Young

"SONG": MOI POETICS

I am so happy and grateful we in the Bay Area had a chance to celebrate kari edwards' life and poetry...

When I translated kari edward's poem -- for Friday evening's memorial celebration (see prior post), it was the first time I'd translated a poem into Ilokano, my first language. I had never thought before to translate something into Ilokano because I don't consider myself fluent in it anymore; I was ten years old when I left the Philippines to become 100% immersed in English. But as I told the SPT audience, I felt compelled to translate kari into my birth tongue because I have always felt inexplicably at home in hir poetry.

The process was revelatory. First, I translated the English to Ilokano -- the text being translated was all numbers (which I chose for numers' transgenderedness). But I could only remember the Ilokano words from 1 to 10. So when I was faced with a number larger than ten to translate, I would translate its addition to that sum. For instance, I would translate "25" into the Ilokano words that meant "ten plus ten plus five".

What this facilitated was a number of repetitions of words -- since the vocabulary being used was only ten words -- that then generated a certain rhythm....that then led to my first poem-as-chant. It's why I entitled the poem "Chant for kari".

I felt aflight as I began reading-only-to-end-up-chanting the Ilokano poem. And winging it as I read/chanted, I began to play with modulations of tone.

I felt the poem as pure abstract sound -- as pure song. It is, I feel, the most pure "song" poem I've ever written.

And that the (Ilokano) texts in it were technically/formally garbled or grammatically erroneous (as well as undoubtedly misspelled) just proved again something that I said, too, in my introduction to the poem-reading when I pointed to a black box scribbled against a page in kari's iduna as my favorite "poem", -- a black box that is illegible -- "Poetry is not words."

Later, Rebecca who was in the audience encouraged me to pod-cast the reading. I, the luddite, just said, Huh? But then Rebecca also suggested something that came to mind as I was chanting the poem -- that the poem for kari would be great with a kulintang collaborator. I appreciated hearing that -- I like the notion of gongs while chanting.

I translated the poem an hour before I left for SPT where I performed it for the first time. This meant that I hadn't yet fully developed the performative aspect of the poem. But now that I see its possibilities, I can see that kari left me with yet another gift. kari is always so good at *engendering* effects. Thank you, kari.

And another effect of the exercise is that, now, I'm looking to translate other poems into Ilokano. But I wish specifically to use my Ilokano to be what words I remember; that is, I don't wish to relearn Ilokano so that I can translate. I wish to work within the limits of, not Ilokano per se, but (my) "diasporic Ilokano."

I think that will work since my aim is pure sound.

And in this process, I also hope to combine two thoughts from Jose Garcia Villa:

young Jose: Poetry is music.

older Jose: I used to think a poem should sing; now I believe, a poem should think.

I WOKE UP AND MADE MOI DAY!

So to speak -- heh! To wit, the first email I read this morning had to do with the possibility of a group of translators translating the entire The First Hay(na)ku Anthology into Spanish. Well rock moi ass on its computer seat! More details later but for now --

Wooooooo-Hoooooooo!

*****

Gee -- this all makes me wonder what would happen if I concocted a poetic form entitled

SUSMARYOSEP!

or, hmmmmmm, in the spirit of Bino informing us that "Borat" isn't just the movie but a word that means "cunt" (heeee)

GAGO!

*****

From this Ilocana:
Dakayo nga Pinoy Poet (or maybe puwet), baka maka-aramid kayo ti new poetic form nga ti nagan na ket Pilipino .... if not an actual Pilipino obscenity. Kasta a ti "subversive" no ma-usar in English-language poetry. U.S.-Americans may have taught us English, but mabalin met nga datayo ti agsuro ti Poetry...Bwahahahaha.