"Poetry comes at things through particulars, by means of images, and it doesn't deal so easily with generalities. Its mode is to cherish without limit. You could say it is idolatrous art. Some poems, the great poems, are true to their specific situations deep down, but they also have a universal quality that lets them live again and again, even in apparently unrelated circumstances." -Galway Kinnell
Saturday, August 11, 2007
3
A whole rain of signs falls. And by morning--sunshine. Avoid such places.
This is the translation of the opening of the poem "Ostaci o plivanju" ("Remains about Swimming") by former Yugoslav poet Slobodan Tisma: "Citava kisa znakova padne i do jutra sija sunce On se kloni takvih mesta" I translated the above lines almost directly. The only thing is that, for the last line, instead of "He avoids such places" I put the directive "Avoid such places." I feel that the directive sounds better for our renga. The final result is a verse that actually follows the 5+7+5 syllable count, which my verses never do. And I didn't plan it that way: the original of course has many more syllables, but the English translation magically fit the prescribed count.
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This is the translation of the opening of the poem "Ostaci o plivanju" ("Remains about Swimming") by former Yugoslav poet Slobodan Tisma:
"Citava kisa znakova padne
i do jutra
sija sunce
On se kloni takvih mesta"
I translated the above lines almost directly. The only thing is that, for the last line, instead of "He avoids such places" I put the directive "Avoid such places." I feel that the directive sounds better for our renga. The final result is a verse that actually follows the 5+7+5 syllable count, which my verses never do. And I didn't plan it that way: the original of course has many more syllables, but the English translation magically fit the prescribed count.
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