tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29975641412949438362024-03-29T00:15:59.875-07:00On the wingSelected translations by Frank BeckFrank Beckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15289440558518599583noreply@blogger.comBlogger17125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2997564141294943836.post-11739700582818855292018-06-15T20:22:00.008-07:002024-03-12T12:15:47.501-07:00"The Life Path" by Friedrich Hölderlin<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhX0MEjTZt5a53HjMWXVpL5uN33V_Aql6eNiRx6ecUQIyaNOZbK5DpxTX-4EOpnn1DEXNERpXL6vu13DUHDK4d3KAA80YE9WLeYpT-3eNVHbPZIpS5BJgD33LU2nsckE8Vs1BvCBqUPbsCttlEyOL9xBqMpMefdOpbzFT-ufMzWlHhFA8I6lRIQtf6h/s935/holderlin.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="622" data-original-width="935" height="432" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhX0MEjTZt5a53HjMWXVpL5uN33V_Aql6eNiRx6ecUQIyaNOZbK5DpxTX-4EOpnn1DEXNERpXL6vu13DUHDK4d3KAA80YE9WLeYpT-3eNVHbPZIpS5BJgD33LU2nsckE8Vs1BvCBqUPbsCttlEyOL9xBqMpMefdOpbzFT-ufMzWlHhFA8I6lRIQtf6h/w649-h432/holderlin.jpg" width="649" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: large;">You
too sought greater things, but the weight of love pulls<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: large;">All of us down, and grief drives us even
lower.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: large;">Yet the arc of our lives back<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: large;">Where they came from is not in
vain.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: large;">High
or low! Does a hand not rule silent Nature</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: large;">In holy night where all the days to come
are planned,</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: large;">And even Hell’s fractured maze--</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: large; text-indent: 41pt;">Ruled by degree, and judged by law?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: large; text-indent: 41pt;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: large; text-indent: 41pt;">This much I have learned: unlike mortal masters, you</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: large; text-indent: 54.6667px;">Heavenly, all-sustaining powers have never</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: large; text-indent: 54.6667px;">Led
me, as far as I know,</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: large;">Along any level pathway.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: large;">A
person tries all that life brings, say the heavens,</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: large;">So that, well nourished, we may give thanks for all of it</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: large;">And understand the freedom</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: large; text-indent: 41pt;">To set forth wherever we wish.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: large;">“Lebenslauf,”
Friedrich Hölderlin (1770-1843)</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;">Summer 1800</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: large;">Translated by Frank Beck 2018</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>Many poets revise their poems after their initial publication. Usually the purpose is to bring the poem closer to the writer's original intent. With "Lebenslauf," Friedrich </i></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>Hölderlin did something unusual: he took a poem about sorrow written two years earlier and rewrote it as a longer poem that expresses a nearly opposite point-of-view. </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-style: italic;">The original four-line poem was one of 17 short poems </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><i>Hölderlin sent to his friend, Christian Ludwig Neuffer, in the summer of 1798 for use in an anthology called </i>A Pocket Book for<i> </i>Educated Ladies. <i>At the time,</i> </span><i style="font-family: georgia, serif;">Hölderlin was a 28-year-old former seminary student working as a private tutor for the Gontard family in Frankfurt. He had fallen in love with his student's mother, Susette Gontard, and the relationship had grown tense. The poem, however, expresses not anguish but resignation:</i></span><br />
<i style="font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: x-large;"><br /></i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: large;"> High was my spirit's aim, but love has already</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: large;"> Drawn it lower, and grief weighs it down even more.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: large;"> So I am making my way</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: large;"> Through life's arc, back to where I began.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>The two years between that poem and the longer one were pivotal ones in Hölderlin's life. He left the Gontard household and moved to nearby Homburg, remaining in touch with Susette. In 1799 he published the second volume of his epistolary novel, </i>Hyperion, <i>set against the backdrop of Greece's fight for independence.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><i>Paradoxically, the suffering caused by parting with Susette made Hölderlin less self-centered. </i></span><i style="font-family: georgia, serif;">His previous poetry had emphasized life's tragedies; now he wrote with greater freedom, often in a prophetic vein. Rather than lamenting the problems of his existence, he celebrated what he thought life could be, in its highest and most satisfying form. </i></span><br />
<i style="font-family: georgia, serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></i><span style="font-size: large;"><i style="font-family: georgia, serif;">During those two years, as Michael Hamburger has <a href="https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/33843/selected-poems-and-fragments/">shown</a>, Hölderlin learned from the Greeks how to make his poetry more sensuous and</i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><i> concre</i></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><i>te.</i><i> In the case of "Lebenslauf", </i><i>the quiet resignation of the earlier poem gave way to an heroic self-assertion that seeks to speak for his readers, as well as for himself</i>.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>During the following seven years, Hölderlin wrote <a href="http://favoritepoems.diehoren.com/2015/06/bread-and-wine-first-strophe.html">"Bread and Wine"</a> and the other extended poems for which he is best known. In 1807, however, he suffered a severe mental collapse. He spent the remaining 36 years living in seclusion, cared for by the family of Ernst Zimmer, a poetry-loving carpenter in Tübingen, a town near Stuttgart. </i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>For nearly a century, Hölderlin's work was not widely known, but in 1913 a young German scholar named Norbert von Hellingrath began publishing an edition of his poems that eventually filled six volumes. Rainer Maria Rilke saw some of the manuscripts while the edition was being prepared, and they became an important influence on the Duino Elegies, which Rilke published in 1923.</i></span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTBesczgjPnPXJTp6b6WHYMnzlk923IyXUElHeCvT_LjJ67Nqg4bp34051HTZV0TqSjhiXlyv4CWuQ1QpOfQIH4UVV92Cbn7GxVQ2xKD4NAZpNVwvjMlSL6_Q5Kzwb8PSMhMjjmYflTBY/s1600/lebenslauf+mss%252B+-+1.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="658" data-original-width="1085" height="376" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTBesczgjPnPXJTp6b6WHYMnzlk923IyXUElHeCvT_LjJ67Nqg4bp34051HTZV0TqSjhiXlyv4CWuQ1QpOfQIH4UVV92Cbn7GxVQ2xKD4NAZpNVwvjMlSL6_Q5Kzwb8PSMhMjjmYflTBY/w622-h376/lebenslauf+mss%252B+-+1.jpg" width="622" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The first two stanzas </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">of the 1800 poem in Hölderlin's hand</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">(Württembergische Landesbibliothek)</span></td></tr>
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<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.textlog.de/17848.html">Hölderlin's poem in German</a></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Oq1ZOlcHUzCHs_CMYdHtlIr-Avo-IGvg/view?usp=sharing">AUDIO: Bruno Ganz reads "Lebenslauf"</a></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://favoritepoems.diehoren.com/2015/06/bread-and-wine-first-strophe.html">David Constantine's translation of the opening of Hölderlin's "Bread and Wine"</a></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.hoelderlin-gesellschaft.de/">The Hölderlin Society in Tübingen</a></span></li>
<li><a href="https://www.deutschlandfunk.de/hoelderlin-zum-175-todestag-ein-moderner-seher-in-die.700.de.html?dram:article_id=419828"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Three radio programs about the poet from Deutschlandfunk</span></a></li></ul>
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</style>Frank Beckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15289440558518599583noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2997564141294943836.post-49579946321790166942018-02-13T19:27:00.003-08:002024-01-29T08:05:55.657-08:00"Winter Night" by Boris Pasternak<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZdeylkZjwR27jAPlzJpoJitPTr2KLx0TcSVlESe-8G1pbdhh9zg4m_NUFZoYZj1NSgMVbMT_OnKbHTdsZ8DeaaXzrCDYaVmjcpPP_Vpu4STTLAs_66zyS_YtLRQ-isXskXMbs971JNAI/s1600/ivinskaya+and+pasternak%252B+-+1.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-size: large;"><img border="0" data-original-height="357" data-original-width="581" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZdeylkZjwR27jAPlzJpoJitPTr2KLx0TcSVlESe-8G1pbdhh9zg4m_NUFZoYZj1NSgMVbMT_OnKbHTdsZ8DeaaXzrCDYaVmjcpPP_Vpu4STTLAs_66zyS_YtLRQ-isXskXMbs971JNAI/s1600/ivinskaya+and+pasternak%252B+-+1.jpg" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Olga Ivinskaya and Boris Pasternak in 1958</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">It snowed and snowed throughout the land,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">A ceaseless snowing.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">On the table, a candle burned;</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">A flame was glowing.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Like a swarm of gnats in summer</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">That flock to a light,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Snowflakes flew to the windowpane,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Afloat in the night.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The storm drew arrows on the glass</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">And circles, growing.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">On the table, a candle burned;</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">A flame was glowing.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Up on the ceiling, shadows stirred,</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Vivid and fleeting,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">But where hands met and then legs met</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Two fates were meeting.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">And, knocked to the floor with a thud,</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Two shoes came to rest;</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">And wax fell as lightly as tears</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">On folds of a dress.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">All disappeared in snowy haze,</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Blinding and blowing;</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">On the table, a candle burned;</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">A flame was glowing.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The candle shook in a draft, caught</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">In the chill one brings;</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Temptation's heat, like an angel,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Raised its cross-shaped wings.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">All February long it snowed,</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">And time and again</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">On the table, a candle burned;</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">A flame was glowing.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Змияя ночь by Boris Pasternak</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: normal;">Translated by Frank Beck</span><br />
<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: normal;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: normal;"><i>When a poet writes about a snowstorm, we seldom know which storm he or she had in mind. In this case, we do. </i></span></span><i style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">On the evening of February 6, 1947, Moscow pianist Maria Yudina invited a group of friends to hear her play and Boris Pasternak read. Rumor had it that the 56-year-old poet was working on a book of fiction, and there was great curiosity about it.</span></i><br />
<i style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></i>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>It snowed so heavily that day that Pasternak worried people wouldn't come; in fact, the car carrying him and his lover, Olga Ivinskaya, got lost repeatedly on the way to Yudina's apartment. Finally, as the car stood idling in the street, Pasternak looked up and saw a lamp flickering in a window. That must be the house, he said, and, strangely enough, he was right. </i></span></span><br />
<i style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></i>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>The symbolism of a single candle guiding the way, through spiritual darkness as well as through a night in winter, resonated with Pasternak. The following morning, he wrote 'Winter Night', which weaves the imagery of that February evening into the love story that was at the core of his new work. For a time he considered calling it, 'A Candle Burned.' By the time the book was published, a decade later, he had named it </i>Doctor Zhivago<i>.</i></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>'Winter Night' eventually took its place as one of the 25 poems that form the final section of the novel, and it is now among the most frequently translated of all 20th-century poems. Anna Pasternak, the writer's grand-niece, describes its genesis in detail in her 2017 book,</i> Lara: The Untold Love Story and The Inspiration for Doctor Zhivago<i>; see the fifth link below.</i></span></span></div>
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<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1WHJLLrif3XuM7weNUJaZVhHN6CrXLz96/view?usp=sharing">Audio: Ivan Kvasha reads the poem in Russian</a></span></li>
<li><a href="http://wikitranslate.org/wiki/Boris_Pasternak_-_Winter_Night/Russian"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Pasternak's poem in Russian</span></a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2010/nov/06/doctor-zhivago-boris-pasternak-translation"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Two translations of 'Doctor Zhivago' compared</span></a></li><li><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dmz3rO4gZrI&t=1s" target=""><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">A new translation of the novel by Pasternak's great-nephew</span></a><br /></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><a href="https://books.apple.com/us/audiobook/doctor-zhivago-unabridged/id1440671499">AUDIO: John Lee reads the Pevear/Volokhonsky translation of 'Doctor Zhivago'</a></span></li>
<li><a href="https://www.harpercollins.com/products/lara-anna-pasternak?variant=32207369633826"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">'Lara': Anna Pasternak's book about Pasternak and Olga Ivinskaya</span></a></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><a href="https://readymag.com/u91515628/Pasternaks-house/">An interactive look at Pasternak's home in Peredelkino</a></span></li>
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</style>Frank Beckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15289440558518599583noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2997564141294943836.post-75342632718921668792017-09-11T10:58:00.004-07:002022-09-24T18:34:59.670-07:00"Autumn Day" by Rainer Maria Rilke<div class="MsoNormal">
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Lord, it is time. The summer was so great.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Now lay your shadow across the sundials,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: large;">And let the winds of the field run free.</span><span style="font-size: medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Tell the last of the grapes to ripen:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">give them two more days of southern warmth,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">urge them to completion, and then chase<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">one final sweetness into the heavy wine.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">He who has no house now will not build one.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">He who is alone will be that way a long time.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">He’ll lie awake and read and write long letters,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">and, up and down along the avenues,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-size: large;">will wander anxiously, when brown leaves scatter.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Rainer Maria Rilke; </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">translated by Frank Beck</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>At the end of August 1902, Rilke left his wife Clara Westhoff and their infant daughter Ruth in Munich and went to Paris to work on a monograph about Rodin. He found a room in a small hotel in the rue Toullier, two blocks from the Jardin du Luxembourg, which seemed to promise "thinking, rest, solitude, everything I longed for."</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Rilke spent his days wondering through Rodin's studio, taking notes and talking with the artist. At 27, Rilke had doubts about his writing, and it thrilled him to see the 62-year-old sculptor so confidently and diligently at work. </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The nights, however, were lonely (Clara didn't join her husband until early October), and out of that loneliness, on September 21, he wrote "Herbsttag" ("Autumn Day").</span></i><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>I've tried to reproduce Rilke's economical German, which contains few adjectives, uses only one metaphor ("chase/one final sweetness") and moves briskly, presenting three separate scenes in just 12 lines. Since "Herbsttag" first appeared in the second edition of </i>The Book of Images<i> (Das </i></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-style: italic;">Buch der Bilder</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-style: italic;">) in 1906, it has become one of Rilke's most widely anthologized and translated poems.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Herr: es ist Zeit. Der Sommer war sehr groß.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Leg deinen Schatten auf die Sonnenuhren,</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">und auf den Fluren laß die Winde los.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Befiehl den letzten Früchten voll zu sein;</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">gieb ihnen noch zwei südlichere Tage,</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">dränge sie zur Vollendung hin und jage</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">die letzte Sü</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">ß</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">e in den schweren Wein.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Wer jetzt kein Haus hat, baut sich keines mehr.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Wer jetzt allein ist, wird es lange bleiben,</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">wird wachen, lesen, lange Briefe schreiben</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">und wird in den Alleen hin und her</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">unruhig wandern, wenn die Blätter treiben.</span><br />
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<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1jO5VLaFohw-InspmXT24Z7SXIh2FJwxw/view?usp=sharing" style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">AUDIO: Sven Görtz reads "Herbsttag"</a></span></li>
<li><a href="https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781466872615"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">RECOMMENDED: A bilingual <i>Book of Images</i>, with translations by Edward Snow</span></a></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.diehoren.com/2013/01/rilkes-encounter-with-ancient-greece-in.html">"You must change your life": Rilke's best known poem</a></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.diehoren.com/2016/01/what-kind-of-performer-was-rilke_8.html">What kind of performer was Rilke?</a></span></li><li><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><a href="http://annettegendler.com/2011/11/my-favorite-poem-herbsttag-by-rainer/">An appreciation of the poem by Annette Gendler </a></span><br /></li><li><a href="https://www.springer.com/us/book/9783476025265"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">Rilke-Handbuch: an indispensable guide to Rilke's life and work (in German)</span></a><br /></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.diehoren.com/2018/04/lou-andreas-salome-audacity-to-be-free.html" style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">VIDEO: A new film about Lou Andreas-Salome and Rilke</a></span></li>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0oluIyfaEei3i4PkxnoKHsbRNMC96WUPnJqsq91IFiMNjygBSDu-2gVRJKvu1wCcEUKN5wLNuzoSenawIkCureGbg47RReo4jW6yizcxegXPDGDf7Da0cRSAMq-jW5mwi3hQSozsxx6g/s1600/rue+toullier.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0oluIyfaEei3i4PkxnoKHsbRNMC96WUPnJqsq91IFiMNjygBSDu-2gVRJKvu1wCcEUKN5wLNuzoSenawIkCureGbg47RReo4jW6yizcxegXPDGDf7Da0cRSAMq-jW5mwi3hQSozsxx6g/s640/rue+toullier.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 27px;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Rue Toullier in the 5th arrondissement is a more prosperous street today</span></span></td></tr>
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Frank Beckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15289440558518599583noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2997564141294943836.post-84355889776817511182016-07-17T13:15:00.006-07:002023-04-14T04:40:31.566-07:00"The Sail" by Mikhail Lermontov<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: large;">One white and lonely sail out there,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: large;">amidst fog and the ocean’s blue.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: large;">What does it seek in distant lands?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: large;">What’s amiss in the land it knew?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: large;">Waves leap up into whistling wind;<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: large;">the tall mast bends; the rigging strains.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: large;">This is no flight from happiness,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: large;">nor will happiness be its aim.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">An azure path spreads before him,</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">as though golden suns never cease,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: large;">but he, rebellious, seeks the storm,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: large;">as if in the storm there were peace.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: large;">Mikhail Lermontov</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: large;">Translation by Frank Beck</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 18pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: large;"><i>Mikhail Lermontov (1814-41) made his name at the age of 23 with a poem about the tragic death of Pushkin in a duel. Lermontov was part Russian and part Scot, the descendant of George Learmont, a Scottish officer who joined the Russian army in the 1600s.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: medium;"><i><span style="font-size: large;">Lermontov's poem was an outraged cry against the code of conduct that had led to Pushkin's death, yet Lermontov himself died the same way, challenged by a friend he had offended with his cutting remarks. </span></i></span><i style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: large;">The early deaths of these two poets made them legendary figures--much like Shelley and Keats in the English tradition.</span></i><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia";"><span style="font-size: 24px;"><i><br /></i></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia"; font-size: large;"><i>Russian speakers still read Lermontov's prose--in particular </i>A Hero of Our<i> </i>Time<i>--as well as his poetry. Like much Russian verse, the poetry is difficult to translate, because its meaning is conveyed largely through the use of rhyme. English has far fewer rhyming possibilities than Russian does, so whether Russian rhymes can be reproduced in English is largely a matter of luck.</i></span><br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwF5T-d1wLriM5hfUuNbd044zx6OvKdpmDMb0XFA97IeJudOu9cLlEQRz1h426t137rqDpHi7ucsvuykH_fFECK7K0_TqyLOda0zh_hRdsb2U1iXKPcjxgHF3XMUSPDW9HNwXRMC202bA/s1600/Lermontov_cropped+-+1.jpg" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwF5T-d1wLriM5hfUuNbd044zx6OvKdpmDMb0XFA97IeJudOu9cLlEQRz1h426t137rqDpHi7ucsvuykH_fFECK7K0_TqyLOda0zh_hRdsb2U1iXKPcjxgHF3XMUSPDW9HNwXRMC202bA/s400/Lermontov_cropped+-+1.jpg" width="355" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Lermontov in 1837</span></td></tr>
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<i style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />Boris Pasternak's "My Sister Life," written during Russia's </span></i></span></i></span></i><br />
<i style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: large;">tumultuous year of 1917, is dedicated to Lermontov. "What was he to me, in the summer of 1917?" Paternak later wrote. "The personification of creative adventure and discovery--the principle of everyday, free, poetical statement."</span></i><br />
<i style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></i>
<i style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></i>
<i style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: large;">That dedication forms a link between Russian Romanticism and Russian Modernism, as if "The Waste Land" has been dedicated to Shelley or Keats. (The image at the top is a detail from "Seascape," a 1910 painting by Nikolai Dubovskoy.)</span></i><br />
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<ul>
<li><a href="http://max.mmlc.northwestern.edu/mdenner/Demo/texts/sail.html" style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: large;">AUDIO: Hear the poem in Russian</span></a></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://russiapedia.rt.com/prominent-russians/literature/mikhail-lermontov/">A Russian view of Lermontov's life and work</a></span></li>
<li><a href="http://translations.diehoren.com/2018/02/winter-night.html"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">AUDIO: "Winter Night" by Boris Pasternak (from Doctor Zhivago)</span></a></li>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYxAsinf2Epv43vzvJymL7BmTFO0q6adFvkfLlPrSt68ggWmaKFeTgqvq6jEuS3-JdLtfpQQKn8koc7jwO13vrQux0Vi-e2ZgJ-dLMsyOl6xno9-zAyAkq2SBQIK5AhzbqYZMGTh8s_y4/s1600/Lermontov_TiflisGLM.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="510" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYxAsinf2Epv43vzvJymL7BmTFO0q6adFvkfLlPrSt68ggWmaKFeTgqvq6jEuS3-JdLtfpQQKn8koc7jwO13vrQux0Vi-e2ZgJ-dLMsyOl6xno9-zAyAkq2SBQIK5AhzbqYZMGTh8s_y4/s640/Lermontov_TiflisGLM.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">"Tiflis" (Tblisi), painted by Lermontov at the age of 23 in 1837</span></td></tr>
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Frank Beckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15289440558518599583noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2997564141294943836.post-73268822325432996692015-07-11T11:13:00.003-07:002018-10-01T08:12:50.984-07:00The first song history gives us<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhANDkANYKBvUZb8zuWQyu7R1Q5EAbi_z82HRrrAXPXKG9xhAmoLnHFpKi0OKRxzM3AhAVR_oHSjvq4KeU3VXMKmfdbUFNNPeNel1DSRpT3ac9fCfa4A_sakS1bcdpUlhKPW7vo3fqNrcs/s1600/tomb+of+the+leopards_enhanced.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhANDkANYKBvUZb8zuWQyu7R1Q5EAbi_z82HRrrAXPXKG9xhAmoLnHFpKi0OKRxzM3AhAVR_oHSjvq4KeU3VXMKmfdbUFNNPeNel1DSRpT3ac9fCfa4A_sakS1bcdpUlhKPW7vo3fqNrcs/s640/tomb+of+the+leopards_enhanced.jpg" width="639" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">While you live, be joyful;</span></div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">grief must know its measure.</span></div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">The span of life is brief;</span></div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-large;">time will claim its treasure.</span></div>
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<i style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;"><br /></i>
<i style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Listen to the only song to come down to us from Ancient Greece, and consider its message. Known as the Seikilos Epitaph, its words and accompanying musical notation were inscribed on a tombstone discovered in 1883 near Aiden, in what is now Turkey.</span></i><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i><br />The song was written by someone known to us only as Seikilos and dedicated to Euterpe, thought to be his wife. Archeologists believe that the tombstone was made about the time of Jesus.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><br />Generally, I believe that translations of songs and poems should preserve the meter of the original, if possible. Here, however, I've been loyal to our English tradition of rhyming epitaphs. It's a strange coincidence that t</i></span><i style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">his song about the transience of life is the only musical composition from that era to survive. Does Fate have the heart of a poet?</i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><i style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></i></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>Here is the original poem, in Classical Greek:</i></span></div>
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<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Ὅσον ζῇς φαίνου</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">μηδὲν ὅλως σὺ λυποῦ</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">πρὸς ὀλίγον ἐστὶ τὸ ζῆν</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">τὸ τέλος ὁ χρόνος </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">α</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">παιτεῖ</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>transliterated in the Roman alphabet:</i></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Hoson zēis phainou</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">mēden holōs sy lypou</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">pros oligon esti to zēn</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">to telos ho chronos apaitei</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>and in a literal translation from the Greek:</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">While you live, dance and sing;</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">grieve not and be joyful.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">For a lifetime is too short,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">and time bears death's prize away.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Translation by Frank Beck, 2015</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">(Fresco from the Tomb of the Leopards, Tarquinia, Italy)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.openculture.com/2015/05/hear-the-seikilos-epitaph-the-oldest-complete-song-in-the-world.html" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">AUDIO: San Antonio Arts Ensemble sing the song</a></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://favoritepoems.diehoren.com/2015/05/whoever-he-is-who-opposite-you.html">Anne Carson's brilliant Sappho impersonation</a></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://translations.diehoren.com/2015/06/sappho-evocative-fragment.html" style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;">Sappho's most famous fragment</a></span></li>
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Frank Beckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15289440558518599583noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2997564141294943836.post-18555015581760927782015-06-29T21:06:00.004-07:002023-01-23T17:43:14.095-08:00Sappho: An evocative fragment<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhv7ZgGaJbzy4okjPEVjDMX8Zd6ZbIYa5aOhCEZPdxyaEIxwSD9V1_4mImIERGPjqIVKaQKmceEh3fHasTGeGf7_Cc4-HMPuLVoB0BNaeBdTH-495iiPmppmDvT37_D0Lx_W2VzQaP7xqY/s1600/sappho_pompeii_crop.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="513" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhv7ZgGaJbzy4okjPEVjDMX8Zd6ZbIYa5aOhCEZPdxyaEIxwSD9V1_4mImIERGPjqIVKaQKmceEh3fHasTGeGf7_Cc4-HMPuLVoB0BNaeBdTH-495iiPmppmDvT37_D0Lx_W2VzQaP7xqY/s640/sappho_pompeii_crop.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Fresco associated with Sappho (from Pompeii, first century CE)</span></td></tr>
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<div style="font-size: 12.8px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Dropping out of sight go the moon </span></div>
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<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">and Pleiades. Midnight slides</span></div>
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<div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">by me, then hour on hour.</span></div>
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<div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">I lie here awake and alone.</span><br /></span>
<i style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></i>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>Anne Carson says, "Sappho is a musician," and her own Sappho translations are some of the most musical </i></span><span style="font-size: large; font-style: italic;">English versions of Classical Greek poetry I've ever read (see the first link below). Many translators simply put the poet's thoughts into modern English, without trying to reproduce Sappho's music. </span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i>In this translation of one of the best known fragments attributed to Sappho (no. 168b), I've maintained the syllabic count of the Greek lines and echoed the meter as closely as I could. I've also been mindful of the caesura (the mid-line pause in Classical verse): in lines 2, 3 and 4, it falls in the same place as in the Greek.</i></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><i style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br /></i></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><i style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">I have also matched the position of key vowels, although I had to juggle the four long vowels in the last line that give the poem's closing its plaintive feeling in Greek. (Note that I intend "Pleiades" to be spoken with the accent on the second syllable, as in Greek, not on the first syllable, as in English.) </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>In order to replicate Sappho's meter, I've altered a few line-to-line meanings. For example, the phrase that runs over from line 2 to line 3 means, "It is the middle of the night". I've changed that to "Midnight slides by me" to meet the needs of the meter.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>Anyone who reads Greek can judge how faithful I've been to Sappho's music and where I've strayed from her literal meaning:</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Δέδυκε μὲν ἀ σελάννα</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">καὶ Πληίαδες· μέσαι δὲ</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">νύκτες, παρὰ δ᾽ ἔρχετ᾽ ὤρα·</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">ἔγω δὲ μόνα κατεύδω.</span><pre><span><ul><span style="font-family: monospace; font-size: 10.4px;">
</span><li><span style="color: blue; font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><a href="http://favoritepoems.diehoren.com/2015/05/whoever-he-is-who-opposite-you.html">Anne Carson translates Sappho's best known poem</a></span></li><li><a href="https://app.box.com/s/eppym58wftd37q5uuhtzhnou54hpk45w"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">Article on Fragment 168(b) by Paul Reiner and David Kovacs</span></a></li><li><span style="color: blue; font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2015/may/07/sensual-sappho/">Edith Hall reviews "The Complete Poems of Sappho"</a></span></li><li><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><a href="http://inamidst.com/stuff/sappho/">The poems of Sappho in Greek, with English translations</a></span></li><li><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><a href="https://art.thewalters.org/detail/10245/sappho-and-alcaeus"><span>More about Alma-Tadema's painting, at the Walters Art Museum</span></a><span>
</span></span></li></ul><span style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: medium;">
</span></span></pre>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7qNCHQ3Ipnv_enC2LCqyMd5bDse8HDUi_HUoZ4uHalSiZB1rxzzF0BHRmpvVz_jm2x72XjUZx3T8PrIMQGIb191yF5FKt1FjPkP_7NCpsIUKQIAs7nmof_NP4U0L16I-x-sal2flWZPQ/s1600/Sir_Lawrence_Alma-Tadema%252C_RA%252C_OM_-_Sappho_and_Alcaeus_-_Walters_37159.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="348" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7qNCHQ3Ipnv_enC2LCqyMd5bDse8HDUi_HUoZ4uHalSiZB1rxzzF0BHRmpvVz_jm2x72XjUZx3T8PrIMQGIb191yF5FKt1FjPkP_7NCpsIUKQIAs7nmof_NP4U0L16I-x-sal2flWZPQ/s640/Sir_Lawrence_Alma-Tadema%252C_RA%252C_OM_-_Sappho_and_Alcaeus_-_Walters_37159.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">"Sappho and Alcaeus" by Lawrence Alma-Tadema, 1881 (click to enlarge)</span><br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">"Aeolian song is suddenly revealed as a mature work of art in the spirited stanzas of Alcaeus. It is raised to a supreme excellence by his younger contemporary, Sappho, whose melody is unsurpassed, perhaps unequalled, among all the relics of Greek verse." </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> British classicist </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Richard Claverhouse Jebb (1841-1905)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
</td></tr>
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<pre></pre>
Frank Beckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15289440558518599583noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2997564141294943836.post-79400577698076755882015-06-12T14:29:00.008-07:002022-05-08T11:06:30.936-07:00"A Letter to Mother" by Sergei Yesenin<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlGvK8pNBCYE9vdJwS-nQQokQIf5Dauk0QSVRqRSeJ6SPGIJgIb2gT9fJOvZH2icoB-Lu5YEtJpJd_4yhv7QiCJFi4VqYuSgFp1-5Csk1E3MaDao7-9I0puJxQ102gDbvD4W6B397ae5Q/s1600/yesenin%252Bcolor_crop.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="467" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlGvK8pNBCYE9vdJwS-nQQokQIf5Dauk0QSVRqRSeJ6SPGIJgIb2gT9fJOvZH2icoB-Lu5YEtJpJd_4yhv7QiCJFi4VqYuSgFp1-5Csk1E3MaDao7-9I0puJxQ102gDbvD4W6B397ae5Q/s640/yesenin%252Bcolor_crop.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Sergei Yesenin, 1922</span></td></tr>
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<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Are you still alive, my <i>starushka</i>?</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">I am too, and I wanted to write.</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">I hope evening still bathes the cottage</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">in the same indescribable light.</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">They tell me that you try to hide it,</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">but I'm causing you pain and distress.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">You walk out on the road after dinner</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">in your tattered and old-fashioned dress.</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">And, as you go walking through twilight,</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">what you brood on is always the same:</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">there’s a barroom fight, and there, at my</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">heart, someone plunges a Finnish blade.</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">It’s nothing, my dear! So calm yourself.</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">It's only a dream born of dread.</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">I may drink, but I’ll see you again</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">before anyone lays me down dead.</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">I’m as loving as ever I was,</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">and the one thing that I’m yearning for</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">is to leave behind my aimlessness</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">and return to our own front door.</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">I’ll come back when our garden is white</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">with the blossoms that I used to know;</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">but don’t wake me again at daybreak,</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">as you did once, eight years ago.</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Don’t awaken the dreams that are gone;</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">don’t rehearse what can never come true.</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The weary grief that living can bring</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">fell to my lot when life was still new.</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">And don’t ask me to pray. Don’t do it!</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">What is long past cannot be made right.</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">You alone are my comfort and help;</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">You are my indescribable light.</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">So please don't worry and pine for me;</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">don't let me cause you so much distress.</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Don’t go out on the road so often</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">in your tattered and old-fashioned dress.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">ПИСЬМО МАТЕРИ (Letter to Mother)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Sergei Yesenin (1895-1925)</span></div><div class="p1"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Translation by Frank Beck</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Sergie Yesenin's rapid fame--so disastrous for himself--came just as millions of Russians were moving from the countryside to the cities in the aftermath of the 1917 revolution. His poems of longing for the land and for the families left behind spoke for many.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">But there was something else: Yesenin had an uncanny ear. His poems can charm you even if you can't understand a word. (Don't miss the performance by Natalya Savchenko that I've linked to below.) They have been irresistible for the generations of Russian songwriters who set them to music.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">That combination of a theme with broad appeal and extraordinary poetic skills have won Yesenin a popularity in his native country second only to Pushkin's. Every day his readers--Russians from every part of society, including retirees who recall when his poems were banned, in Soviet days--bring flowers to his grave in Moscow.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_Aipeflp9rd0r2d_DltpYkuuATtzt-UEsh8kdokg1lE-WpVHOZV3RM12Xyl0aQOy9co_1nVo5Vjq8wkEgkj8b65mP8NiPzCSI6NT0jvythTpsWlyfNs_bhIfOYwLWTn0vkh17MsRgR-s/s1600/Yesenin+cottage.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="440" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_Aipeflp9rd0r2d_DltpYkuuATtzt-UEsh8kdokg1lE-WpVHOZV3RM12Xyl0aQOy9co_1nVo5Vjq8wkEgkj8b65mP8NiPzCSI6NT0jvythTpsWlyfNs_bhIfOYwLWTn0vkh17MsRgR-s/s640/Yesenin+cottage.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The Yesenin family home in Konstantinovo, Ryazan</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Yet Yesenin was one of the people in Russia least suited for the high-profile celebrity thrust on him. Emotionally unbalanced, he suffered from depression and hallucinations, and his main coping mechanism was alcohol. His reputation as a carouser eventually overshadowed his fame as a writer. Increasingly dissolute, he died a few months after this 30th birthday, under circumstances that are still unclear.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">His chaotic life made headlines at the time, but Yesenin's lyric gift is what makes him beloved today. "The most precious thing he conveys," wrote Boris Pasternak, "is an image of nature, of his own Ryazan countryside in the depths of wooded Russia. He was able to describe it, as he saw it in childhood, with an overwhelming freshness."</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Perhaps the best epitaph for Yesenin the man came from Nadezhda Volpin, a lover of his who was interviewed in the 1990s. "[He] was a true Russian," she said. "And not a 19th- or 20th-century Russian, but an eighth-century Russian, a primordial Russian." </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">For those who read Cyrillic, here is Yesenin's poem in Russian:</span><br />
<br /></div>
<div class="zag2" style="background: rgb(254, 254, 254); text-align: center;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="color: #000050;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Ты жива еще, моя
старушка?</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #000050; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Жив и я. Привет тебе, привет!</span><br />
<span style="color: #000050; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Пусть струится над твоей избушкой</span><br />
<span style="color: #000050; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Тот вечерний несказанный свет.</span><br />
<span style="color: #000050; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #000050; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Пишут мне, что ты, тая
тревогу,</span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="color: #000050; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Загрустила шибко обо мне,</span><br />
<span style="color: #000050; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Что ты часто ходишь на дорогу</span><br />
<span style="color: #000050; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">В старомодном ветхом шушуне.</span><br />
<span style="color: #000050; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #000050; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">И тебе в вечернем синем
мраке</span><br />
<span style="color: #000050; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Часто видится одно и то ж:</span><br />
<span style="color: #000050; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Будто кто-то мне в кабацкой драке</span><br />
<span style="color: #000050; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Саданул под сердце финский нож.</span><br />
<span style="color: #000050; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #000050; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Ничего, родная!
Успокойся.</span><br />
<span style="color: #000050; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Это только тягостная бредь.</span><br />
<span style="color: #000050; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Не такой уж горький я пропойца,</span><br />
<span style="color: #000050; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Чтоб, тебя не видя, умереть.</span><br />
<span style="color: #000050; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #000050; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Я по-прежнему такой же
нежный</span><br />
<span style="color: #000050; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">И мечтаю только лишь о том,</span><br />
<span style="color: #000050; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Чтоб скорее от тоски мятежной</span><br />
<span style="color: #000050; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Воротиться в низенький наш дом.</span><br />
<span style="color: #000050; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="zag2" style="background: rgb(254, 254, 254); text-align: center;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="color: #000050;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Я вернусь, когда раскинет
ветви</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #000050; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">По-весеннему наш белый сад.</span><br />
<span style="color: #000050; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Только ты меня уж на рассвете</span><br />
<span style="color: #000050; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Не буди, как восемь лет назад.</span><br />
<span style="color: #000050; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #000050; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Не буди того, что
отмечталось,</span><br />
<span style="color: #000050; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Не волнуй того, что не сбылось,—</span><br />
<span style="color: #000050; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Слишком раннюю утрату и усталость</span><br />
<span style="color: #000050; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Испытать мне в жизни привелось.</span><br />
<span style="color: #000050; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #000050; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">И молиться не учи меня.
Не надо!</span><br />
<span style="color: #000050; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">К старому возврата больше нет.</span><br />
<span style="color: #000050; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Ты одна мне помощь и отрада,</span><br />
<span style="color: #000050; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Ты одна мне несказанный свет.</span><br />
<span style="color: #000050; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #000050; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Так забудь же про свою
тревогу,</span><br />
<span style="color: #000050; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Не грусти так шибко обо мне.</span><br />
<span style="color: #000050; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Не ходи так часто на дорогу</span><br />
<span style="color: #000050; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">В старомодном ветхом шушуне.</span><br />
<span style="color: #000050; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjiX-TVeYmEyeyZzMPpE5ke9XGkzbp7h_4Rc0u6sjs-j8Nb1RxzudEl040W_HNbLHNbt6UxWwjcg-y9Ekvi2k_IlDLeHTTfKasd6ye7WtaS-1W9GT9ZWfAhdn5MEdYFGSx_apBejUa5d0/s1600/yesenin%2527s+grave.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjiX-TVeYmEyeyZzMPpE5ke9XGkzbp7h_4Rc0u6sjs-j8Nb1RxzudEl040W_HNbLHNbt6UxWwjcg-y9Ekvi2k_IlDLeHTTfKasd6ye7WtaS-1W9GT9ZWfAhdn5MEdYFGSx_apBejUa5d0/s640/yesenin%2527s+grave.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Yesenin's grave in Moscow</span></td></tr>
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<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S86-x0kpCfQ">VIDEO: Natalya Savchenko reads the poem</a></span></li>
<li><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3kA4sXuq08"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">VIDEO: Vasily Lipatov's musical setting, sung by Igor Muravyev</span></a></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://samlib.ru/editors/w/wagapow_a_s/yesenin-bio.shtml">Yesenin's autobiographical statement, translated by Alec Vagapov</a></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://lit.lib.ru/s/slobodkina_o/yesenindoc.shtml">Memories of the poet from Nadeshda Volpin</a></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://russiapedia.rt.com/prominent-russians/literature/sergey-esenin/">Introduction to Yesenin's life and work from Russiapedia</a></span></li></ul><br />
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Frank Beckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15289440558518599583noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2997564141294943836.post-68220328957551614752015-04-19T07:17:00.004-07:002024-03-21T16:59:17.493-07:00Christine to her son<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">Poissy: where Pizan may have lived during her last years</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">I have no great fortune, my son,</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">To make you rich. In place of one,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">here are the lessons I have learned--</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">the finest things I've ever earned.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Before the world has borne you far,</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">try to know people as they are.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Knowing that will help you take</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">the path that keeps you from mistake.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Pity anyone who is poor</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">and stands in rags outside your door.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Help them when you hear them cry!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Remember that you too will die.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Love those who have love for you,</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">and keep your enemy in view:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">of allies none can have too many;</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">small enemies there are not any.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Never lose what the Good Lord gave</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">to this, our world, too much enslaved.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The foolish rush to end their lives;</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">only the steadfast soul survives.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>Christine de Pizan; translation by Frank Beck</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i>Many years ago, I was asked to find some poems in Middle French and translate them for use by American middle school students studying the Renaissance. </i></span><i style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">I expected to find courtly language and an abstract piety. As I began to read this poem, I was astonished at its simplicity and emotional directness.</i></span><br />
<i style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></i>
<i style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">I discovered that Christine de Pizan (1364-1430) was Europe's first female writer to have her work widely read. It's often said that Pizan became a writer because her husband died, leaving her as the sole support for their two children, her mother and her niece. But many Renaissance women lost their partners without becoming writers.</span></i><br />
<i style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></i>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;">Pisan in her study (1411-12)</span></td></tr>
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<i style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12.8px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Pizan was very fortunate in having a father--Tommaso di Benevenuto da Pizzano (near Bologna)--who gave her an education as good as any boy's in her day. When Christine was four, Tommaso became court astrologer to King Charles V of France, and the family moved to Paris, already a center for learning. Tommaso arranged for his daughter to study classical languages, history, literature and religion, and she did so with dedication until she was wed at the age of 15.</span></i><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>When her husband died 11 years later, Christine began writing ballads about lost love to ease her grief. But eventually she used her verbal skills to present a broad feminist critique of Renaissance society in works such as </i>The </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Book of<i> </i>the City of Ladies</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-style: italic;">. She argued that women should be more respected and better educated and should have a role outside the home. C.C. Willard has chronicled Pizan's life and work in her 1984 biography, published by Persea Books.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-style: italic;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-style: italic;"><span style="font-size: large;">If Pisan could see the role women have in today's society, I think she would be deeply gratified at what they have achieved, but also saddened that it has taken so long.</span></span><br />
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<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://departments.kings.edu/womens_history/chrisdp.html">Brief biography of Christine de Pizan</a></span></li><li><a href="https://www.worldhistory.org/Christine_de_Pizan/"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">Article about the author from World History.org</span></a><br /></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://bit.ly/1H2KLxD">More by and about Pizan from the Internet Archive</a></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><a href="http://www.arlima.net/ad/christine_de_pizan.html"><span style="font-size: large;">Pizan bibliography from the Archives of Medieval Literature</span></a></span></li></ul>Frank Beckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15289440558518599583noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2997564141294943836.post-83381629200817482932015-04-12T07:52:00.010-07:002024-02-10T07:22:23.080-08:00Sparrow Hills<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8e6e5664gtaBnGFcIZH7CoWnyLBRfwwPmFr5K8j4AIV6JY9balpn_clL3bYrz-dVXTq4JhJ799OEBEwQxdJJM-nQUQh7LzmeHqN9xG6sVSQvtAlk3ZtC31QYvHxgpGfNVNjSVCDCy1KU/s1600/View+of+Moscow+from+Sparrow+Hills_crop.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="403" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8e6e5664gtaBnGFcIZH7CoWnyLBRfwwPmFr5K8j4AIV6JY9balpn_clL3bYrz-dVXTq4JhJ799OEBEwQxdJJM-nQUQh7LzmeHqN9xG6sVSQvtAlk3ZtC31QYvHxgpGfNVNjSVCDCy1KU/s1600/View+of+Moscow+from+Sparrow+Hills_crop.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>View of Moscow from Sparrow Hills</i> (A. Kuindzhi, 1882)</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">A breast kissed wet, as though under a shower!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">But summer streams do not flow forever,</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">And we cannot stay on here night after night,</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Raising dust to the accordion’s low drone.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">I’ve heard about old age—a frightening prediction!</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">No crashing wave will lift its hands to the stars.</span></div>
<div class="p1"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">And imagine: they say there's no face in the fields,</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">no heart in the pond and, in the forest, no God.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Let your soul break free! The day bubbles like surf.</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">It's the noontime of the world. Where are your eyes?</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Look: high in the treetops, thought is a simmering mix</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Of woodpeckers, pine cones, heat, needles and clouds.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Here the track of the city trolley ends.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Machines are barred; pine trees will have to do.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">From here on, it’s Sunday—a parting of branches,</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">A dash through the meadow and a slide on the grass.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Weaving our steps with sunlight and Whitsunday,</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The woods insist the world is always like this.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The trees believe it; the meadow understands;</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">It pours down from the sky across our laps.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Воробьёвы горы</span> <span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">from <i>My Sister, Life,</i> 1922</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Boris Pasternak; </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">translation by Frank Beck</span><br />
<i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></i><i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Imagine trying to translate Dylan Thomas into Russian. Bringing a Pasternak poem into English isn't much easier, but I've tackled this one because I think the existing versions don't do justice to the poet's unique voice. In fact, many English-language translators seem put off by Pasternak's exuberance--those three exclamation marks in the first nine lines of "Sparrow Hills" are his, not some addition of mine.</span></i></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span><i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The biggest problem for a translator of this particular poem is the crucial role that its rhymes play: they cannot be replicated in any language other than Russian. </span></i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>There's also the challenge of recreating Pasternak's mix of the lyrical and the mundane. For example, the poem's first line refers to a </i>rukomoinik<i>--the kind of wall-mounted water tank many Russians once used for bathing. This word has often been translated as "spigot" or "pitcher", but </i></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>the connotations of the Russian word are at once more domestic and more erotic. "Shower" is a closer counterpart, I think.</i></span></div><div class="p1"><span style="font-family: georgia, times new roman, serif; font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Pasternak in 1916</span></td></tr>
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<i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></i></div><div class="p1"><i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></i></div><div class="p1"><i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></i></div><div class="p1"><i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></i></div><div class="p1"><i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></i></div><div class="p1"><i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></i></div><div class="p1"><i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></i></div><div class="p1"><i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></i></div><div class="p1"><i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></i></div><div class="p1"><i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></i></div><div class="p1"><i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></i></div><div class="p1"><i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></i></div><div class="p1"><i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></i></div><div class="p1"><i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></i></div><div class="p1"><i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></i></div><div class="p1"><i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></i></div><div class="p1"><i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></i></div><div class="p1"><i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></i></div><div class="p1"><i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></i></div><div class="p1"><i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></i></div><div class="p1"><i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></i></div><div class="p1"><i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></i></div><div class="p1"><i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></i></div><div class="p1"><br /></div><div class="p1"><i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">While I could not reproduce Pasternak’s rhymes, I have preserved many </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">of his cadences and mirrored the way he builds meaning, line-by-line. In place of </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">his end-rhyme, I used assonance and alliteration to create a closely patterned </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">sound structure like his. Throughout my translation, I've tried to convey the force</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> of Pasternak’s charged language and the sheer delight of his imaginative leaps.</span></i></div>
<div class="p1">
<i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>Pasternak's poems have been recorded by any number of Russian actors, and some of been set to music. I've included a link to readings of "Sparrow Hills" and the title poem from </i>My<i> </i>Sister, Life,<i> so you can hear two of them in Pasternak's own language. I've also provided a translation of the book's title poem by Phillip C. Flayderman.</i></span></div><div class="p1"><span style="font-family: georgia, times new roman, serif; font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><a href="https://wikitranslate.org/wiki/Boris_Pasternak_-_Sparrow_Hills/Russian">Pasternak's poem in Russian</a></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><a href="https://app.box.com/s/ls2t2tx9dxmk3oy7y5lwt4fxi9xdf4fg">AUDIO: Yevgeny Sidorov reads "Sparrow Hills"</a></span></li>
<li><a href="http://readrussia.org/audio/boris-pasternak-as-poet-and-translator"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">AUDIO: Pasternak reads two of his poems and a translation</span></a></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><a href="https://app.box.com/s/0xoznvq5xf4d06pvhff24rffmqy9e1g5">AUDIO: Victor Zozulin reads "My Sister Life"</a></span></li><li><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><a href="https://app.box.com/s/kapkv05o5hjnvt3klsxr749kw80syc9u">"My Sister Life" translated by Phillip C. Flayderman</a></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/4679/the-art-of-fiction-no-25-boris-pasternak">Olga Carlisle interviews Pasternak for the Paris Review</a></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://rbth.com/literature/2015/06/01/a_virtual_tour_of_boris_pasternaks_famous_country_house_in_peredel_46491.html">A virtual tour of Pasternak's home in Peredelkino</a></span></li></ul>
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<ul>
</ul>
</div>
Frank Beckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15289440558518599583noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2997564141294943836.post-47413850806000718802015-04-08T20:27:00.002-07:002021-04-07T05:38:54.304-07:00"You know I'd like to slip"<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">You know I'd like to slip</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">from the loudly buzzing room</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">when the first pale stars,</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">high above the darkened oaks,</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">catch fire.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">I want to make my way</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">through paths that few can find</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">in the hushed evening meadows,</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">with no dream but this:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">you’re there, too.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">"Weisst du, ich will mich schleichen"</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Rainer Maria Rilke/translated by Frank Beck</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i>This is from Rilke's second collection, </i>Advent<i>, published in December 1897. The poems were written in Prague and Munich during 1896 and 1897.</i></span></span></div><div class="p1"><span style="font-size: large;"><i style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;"><br /></i></span></div><div class="p1"><span style="font-size: large;"><i style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;">Many of the poems in this collection, like this one, show a more direct and sensual side of Rilke that gives little indication of the mystical, sometimes oracular, voice he would develop later. (The photo shows Rilke at the artist colony in Worpswede, near Bremen, in 1901 or 1902.)</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>Here's the German poem:</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Weisst du, ich will mich schleichen</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Leise aus lautem Kreis,</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Wenn ich erst die bleichen</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Sterne über den Eichen</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Blühen weiss.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Wege will ich erkiesen,</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Die selten wer betritt</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">In blassen Abendwiesen –</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Und keinen Traum, als diesen:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Du gehst mit.</span><br />
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<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.diehoren.com/2018/04/lou-andreas-salome-audacity-to-be-free.html" style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;">VIDEO: A new film about Rilke and Lou Andreas-Salome</a></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.diehoren.com/2013/01/rilkes-encounter-with-ancient-greece-in.html">Rilke's encounter with Ancient Greece</a></span></li><li><a href="https://boydellandbrewer.com/9781640141018/annelieses-house/"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">What fictional character was based on Rilke?</span></a><br /></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.diehoren.com/2016/05/the-urgent-music-of-duino-elegies.html">AUDIO: The urgent music of the Duino Elegies</a></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://translations.diehoren.com/2017/09/autumn-day-herbsttag.html">AUDIO: Rilke's 'Autumn Day' (Herbsttag)</a></span></li>
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Frank Beckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15289440558518599583noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2997564141294943836.post-19451299346451000042015-04-08T19:38:00.000-07:002018-04-28T04:22:12.596-07:00Rilke's encounter with Ancient Greece<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjO85SCswZh3vp1PR28ktTBEcMqeUMrIwZkG-PIF6fDqxIkjsX9bttsldmXdlwEg_17jPDwnPf48xYFF8abCasz8cdKMrzsCBWM6yxyrPX50HAO03DsmNK941bLTzReKUswnt1iZfX1oVs/s1600/archaic_torso_louvre.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjO85SCswZh3vp1PR28ktTBEcMqeUMrIwZkG-PIF6fDqxIkjsX9bttsldmXdlwEg_17jPDwnPf48xYFF8abCasz8cdKMrzsCBWM6yxyrPX50HAO03DsmNK941bLTzReKUswnt1iZfX1oVs/s1600/archaic_torso_louvre.jpg" width="377" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">We did not know the incredible head,</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">in which his wide eyes ripened. Yet even now</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">his torso is gleaming like a lantern,</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">and there his gaze, dimmed only a little,</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">holds fast and shines. If it did not, the surge</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">of his breast could not blind you, and that smile</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">in the slight twist of the loins would not run</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">to the center, where procreation flared.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Then this stone would be deformed and blunted</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">under the luminous plunge of the shoulders.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">It would not be glistening like lion’s fur;</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">it would not break out from all its edges</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">like a star. For there is no place here</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">that does not see you. You must change your life.</span></span><br />
<h3>
<i><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></i></h3>
<h3>
<i><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">In the summer of 1908,</span></span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> the sculptor Auguste Rodin told Rilke to stop writing about his childhood and use the world around him as the subject for his poetry. </span></span></span><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></span></span></span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Rilke did just that, writing about the panther at the Paris zoo, the carousel at the Luxembourg gardens and Chartres Cathedral. He also visited the Louvre and saw this fragment of a Greek statue of Apollo, and it inspired one of his most celebrated poems.</span></span></span><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></span></span></span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">In this translation, I've tried to convey the immediacy and sense of wonder of Rilke's poem in German.</span></span></span></i></h3>
<div>
<i><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></span></span></span></i></div>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.sternenfall.de/Rilke--Archa0357scher_Torso_Apollos.html"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Rilke's poem in German ('Archaischer Torso Apollos')</span></a></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><a href="https://app.box.com/shared/tnaatin0fd">Sven Görtz reads the poem in German</a></span></li>
<li><a href="http://cinemalibrestudio.com/louandreassalomefilm/index.html"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">A new film about Rilke and Lou Andreas-Salome</span></a></li>
</ul>
<br />Frank Beckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15289440558518599583noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2997564141294943836.post-64289949770469646522015-03-29T09:02:00.002-07:002023-04-29T20:55:27.976-07:00"God speaks to each of us"<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFIe8bcGb_R4zZBkvxkOYWWtQ2XJapb45a5TTNLFv9cwNujmW14fX5WbKrDcUcaGKaQgWvcq7dxinAWNS1fCFkQtfw1YXVH5vmWXQMUBfdFt72U7VwwlH0XeFspTJNEQTOxADn4R9Mds4/s1600/rilke+portrait_westhoff_enhanced+-+1.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="692" data-original-width="564" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFIe8bcGb_R4zZBkvxkOYWWtQ2XJapb45a5TTNLFv9cwNujmW14fX5WbKrDcUcaGKaQgWvcq7dxinAWNS1fCFkQtfw1YXVH5vmWXQMUBfdFt72U7VwwlH0XeFspTJNEQTOxADn4R9Mds4/s640/rilke+portrait_westhoff_enhanced+-+1.jpg" width="520" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Portrait of Rilke by his brother-in-law, Helmut Westhoff (1901)</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">God speaks to each of us, even as he makes us,</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">then leads us out of the dark in silence.</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">And the words before we begin,</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">those cloud-strewn words, are these:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Sent beyond the limits of your senses,</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">go to the edge of your longing:</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">give Me clothes to wear.</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Grow behind things like a fire</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">so that their spreading shadows</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">always keep Me covered.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Let everything happen to you: beauty and terror.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Only keep going: no feeling is final.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Don’t lose touch with Me.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Near is that land</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">they call life.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">You will know it</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">by how earnest it seems.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Give me your hand. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">"Gott spricht zu jedem nur, eh er ihn macht"</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Rainer Maria Rilke, October 1899</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Translated by Frank Beck</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-size: large;"><i style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">This untitled poem, whose first line in German is "Gott spricht zu jedem nur, eh er ihn macht" comes from </i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The Book of Hours</span><i style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"> (Das Stunden-Buch), published in 1905 by Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926). It was written in Berlin, at Villa Waldfrieden, 11 Hundekehlestrasse, in the Schmargendorf district, shortly after an extended visit to Russia with Lou Andreas-Salome.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><i style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br /></i></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><i style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Rilke is one of the most important German-language poets of the 20th century, and no other modern poet has been more widely translated into English.</i></span></div>
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<ul>
<li><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Book_of_Hours" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">More about </span></span><i style="font-weight: normal;">The Book of Hours</i></span></a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/rainer-maria-rilke" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Overview of Rilke's poetry from the Poetry Foundation</span></a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/files/24288/24288-h/24288-h.htm" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Complete text of <i>The Book of Hours</i> in German</span></a></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: normal;"><a href="http://www.diehoren.com/2013/01/rilkes-encounter-with-ancient-greece-in.html">AUDIO: Rilke's encounter with Ancient Greece</a></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-weight: normal;"><a href="https://www.diehoren.com/2018/04/lou-andreas-salome-audacity-to-be-free.html">VIDEO: A new film about Lou Andreas-Salome and Rilke</a></span></li>
</ul>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgS8tdd3QLMLQKqldiHpCYPcwJ4bQLUH_eDwX4wVeURQi-SOgm-VyZpXlBq9FGrqW8db4lgWXhw-ZZJWV-SpHcwABOvVYvIAY5Y83StgY9sLK5iGw6p9CsFXoiGw2wUMbRoFhkng78kz6Q/s1600/Schmargendorf+1900_cropped+-+1.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="413" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgS8tdd3QLMLQKqldiHpCYPcwJ4bQLUH_eDwX4wVeURQi-SOgm-VyZpXlBq9FGrqW8db4lgWXhw-ZZJWV-SpHcwABOvVYvIAY5Y83StgY9sLK5iGw6p9CsFXoiGw2wUMbRoFhkng78kz6Q/s640/Schmargendorf+1900_cropped+-+1.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Berlin's Schmargendorf as it looked when Rilke lived there</span></td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdeWSWYakrG2msYU40oYS9Iny6gaBOir49a2gS27UWKu9uRjopMoV7G56Q-ZE-dmq7JFUpec60qNnpgnq3kbfCjdx7NXibQUFjkaBUe-Po0I9avEaTAyFm9zkkpQpHrVvNS2p1WFykS-Y/s1600/12951562.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdeWSWYakrG2msYU40oYS9Iny6gaBOir49a2gS27UWKu9uRjopMoV7G56Q-ZE-dmq7JFUpec60qNnpgnq3kbfCjdx7NXibQUFjkaBUe-Po0I9avEaTAyFm9zkkpQpHrVvNS2p1WFykS-Y/s640/12951562.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Schmargendorf as it is today</span></td></tr>
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Frank Beckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15289440558518599583noreply@blogger.com49tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2997564141294943836.post-75658820614733838042015-03-15T14:28:00.033-07:002023-08-19T11:36:06.497-07:00"The crime was done in Granada"<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7Jh6O3HjIRWVR-15slyoKZk38Q5JbHXoDuE6FouBNyI9gNyTFaz5W6Oj6CMeEfchp4KHpS3YmdmqMopYK-IqO03VTHJc1_-d0ow-zQz0lpClIef6aHAtw0oBKws3KZDuHOx6aRZK5aSQ/s1600/garcc3ada-lorca-saludando.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7Jh6O3HjIRWVR-15slyoKZk38Q5JbHXoDuE6FouBNyI9gNyTFaz5W6Oj6CMeEfchp4KHpS3YmdmqMopYK-IqO03VTHJc1_-d0ow-zQz0lpClIef6aHAtw0oBKws3KZDuHOx6aRZK5aSQ/s1600/garcc3ada-lorca-saludando.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Lorca in Montevideo, Uruguay in 1934</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">To Federico García Lorca</span><br />
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">I.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">He was seen walking among rifles,</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">down the long street,</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">leaving for the cold of the countryside</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">with the morning stars still bright overhead.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">They killed Federico</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">at the break of day.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The assassins never dared</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">to look him in the face:</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">each of them had his eyes shut tight.</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">“God won’t save you!” they shouted,</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">and Federico fell dead—</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">blood on his clothes, lead in his back . . .</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Let it be known that the crime was done in Granada</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">--poor Granada--in his Granada.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">II. The poet and death</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">He was seen walking alone with her,</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">unafraid of her sickle.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The sun was already lighting the towers;</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">hammers were sounding--striking and clanging in the forges.</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Federico spoke to her,</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">playing up to death. She was listening.</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">“You’ve made my verses ring, my dear,</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">with the clapping of your dry hands.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">You’ve put ice into my song and honed</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">my tragedies on your scythe of silver,</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">so I will sing to you of the flesh you don’t have,</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">the eyes you have lost,</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">the hair that the wind took away,</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">the red lips where you used to kiss.</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Today, as always, oh Gypsy, my death,</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">how good to be alone with you</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">in these breezes of Granada, of my Granada!"</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">III.</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">He was seen walking . . .</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">friends, let us make</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">a monument for the poet in the Alhambra</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">out of stone and dreams</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">above a fountain where the water grieves</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">and says to anyone who hears it:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">the crime was done in Granada, in his Granada!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Antonio Machado, 1936</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Translated by Frank Beck</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-style: italic;">As a teenager, Federico </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-style: italic;">García</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-style: italic;"> Lorca (1898-1936) thought of himself primarily as a pianist. In 1916 his piano teacher, Martin Dom</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-style: italic;">í</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>ngeuz Berreuta, introduced him to Antonio Machado. At 41, Machado was known across Spain for a 1912 book of poems called </i>The Castilian Country<i>. Lorca became enthralled with Machado's work, and it helped to inspire his own first book of poems, which appeared in 1921.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>Lorca was murdered by supporters of Franco on August 19, 1936. They were outraged by his homosexuality and by his political views as well, for Lorca had once said, "I will always be on the side of those who have nothing and who are not even allowed to enjoy the nothing they have in peace."</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>Machado wrote his impassioned response to his friend's murder shortly after hearing of it. He soon fled the fascists himself, and died three years later, just across the border, in Collioure, France.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghjVuxj8WPcjlaYSYQaifIVGCojVwic8cmex_dfGTMNsa-B7hf93DIKTaj_07M2Kb-n82ur7grRcOeZnPcFSbeS95SGpPwNyJ1XNSebMe94xUPNpkrXuGNXAE59X-DYhufYaNwajZV3do/s1600/Antonio_Machado_por_L.+Oroz_crop.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghjVuxj8WPcjlaYSYQaifIVGCojVwic8cmex_dfGTMNsa-B7hf93DIKTaj_07M2Kb-n82ur7grRcOeZnPcFSbeS95SGpPwNyJ1XNSebMe94xUPNpkrXuGNXAE59X-DYhufYaNwajZV3do/s1600/Antonio_Machado_por_L.+Oroz_crop.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Drawing of Antonio Machado by Leandro Oroz (1925)</span></td></tr>
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<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><a href="http://trianarts.com/antonio-machado-el-crimen-fue-en-granada-a-federico-garcia-lorca/#sthash.cERERs8f.dpbs">Machado's poem in Spanish</a></span></li>
</ul>
</div>
<div class="p1">
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.enforex.com/culture/antonio-machado.html">Overview of Machado's life and works</a></span></li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;">
<li><a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1HCeRTugAFOwAg4K_WSUENKoADHW-w1W-/view?usp=sharing"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">Lorca on piano: accompanying the singer La Argentina in his arrangement of the folk song, 'Las Morillas de Jaen'</span></a></li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;">
<li><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.huertadesanvicente.com/e_portada.php?id=0">Huerta de San Vicente, where Lorca wrote many of his works</a></span></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.theguardian.com/culture/2011/jun/25/spain-franco-federico-garcia-lorca">Historian Miguel Caballero Pérez on Lorca's final hours</a></span></li>
</ul>
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><a href="https://academic.oup.com/book/3456?searchresult=1">A study of Machado's poetry by Xon de Ros</a></span></li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/distributed/D/bo55540873.html"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">A study of Lorca's poetry by Stephen Roberts</span></a></li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;">
<li><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><a href="https://turismodesegovia.com/es/antonio-machado">The Machado museum in Segovia</a></span></li></ul><div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
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Frank Beckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15289440558518599583noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2997564141294943836.post-4025486079745816402015-03-15T14:28:00.032-07:002024-01-05T06:42:20.563-08:00"Prayer to Life" by Lou Andreas-Salomé<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiK3GFXLNVkDba1ZSYG0CSSozOI1XnDcZxGc9YdeJyNUJ29ewKC_zMctvDesHtx6_h8pNPs-knbl8ewGvUmhKsMOMMjZvqVvKrndvMkjZ0WwrVLa4mUg10HR3Oea-aeywDLxUNOHXLBVdA/s1600/lou+salome+as+teenager.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiK3GFXLNVkDba1ZSYG0CSSozOI1XnDcZxGc9YdeJyNUJ29ewKC_zMctvDesHtx6_h8pNPs-knbl8ewGvUmhKsMOMMjZvqVvKrndvMkjZ0WwrVLa4mUg10HR3Oea-aeywDLxUNOHXLBVdA/s640/lou+salome+as+teenager.jpg" width="476" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Lou von Salomé </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">as a teenager</span></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">As truly as I'd love a friend,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">I have always loved you, riddling life,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">whether I've laughed with you or wept,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">whether you have brought me pleasure or strife.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Even in your sorrow I love you</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">and, when you scatter me through space,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">I will tear myself out of your arms</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">as a friend from a friend's embrace.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">With all my strength I cling to you!</span><br /><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Let all your fire enkindle me.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Even in the heat of battle</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">let me unravel your mysteries.</span><br />
<br /><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Thousand of years to live and to think!</span><br /><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">In your arms I long to remain.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">And, when you have no more joy to give --</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">very well -- you still have your pain.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">"Lebensgebet," Lou Andreas-Salomé</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Translated by Frank Beck</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>In 1880 Lou von Salomé of St. Petersburg was 19 and studying at the University of Zurich, one of the first universities to accept female students. She audited courses in philosophy, theology and art history. At the same time, she wrote poems, including this bold declaration to accept whatever life might bring her.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i>Two years later in Rome, Lou struck up a friendship with 37-year-old Friedrich Nietzsche, who liked her poem so much he set it to music. In an 1882 letter to Ida Overbeck, he wrote, "I </i></span><i style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">found no more gifted or reflective spirit. Lou is by far the most intelligent person I have ever become acquainted with."</i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><br /></i></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i>Lou went on to become Rilke's "lover, mother and muse" and a pioneering psychoanalyst to whom Freud sometimes referred patients.</i></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><br /></i></span></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i>A 2016 feature film by Cordula Kablitz-Post tells the story of her life</i><i>. It is available on Vimeo and other streaming platforms and on BluRay/DVD.</i></span></span><div><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><br /></i></span></span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i>In June 2021 Raleigh Whitinger and I published the first English translation of Andreas-Salomé's 1921 novel, </i>Das Haus<i>.</i></span></span><br />
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<ul>
<li><a href="https://boydellandbrewer.com/9781640141018/annelieses-house/"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">Lou Andreas-Salome's 1921 novel, <i>Das Haus</i></span></a></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.diehoren.com/2018/04/lou-andreas-salome-audacity-to-be-free.html">VIDEO: A scene from the film and my review</a></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.diehoren.com/2015/07/a-genius-of-inspiration-heads-for-screen.html" style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">A behind-the-scenes look at Cordula Kablitz-Post's film</a></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.bodegafilms.com/film/lou-andreas-salome/">VIDEO: The French release from Bodega Films</a></span></li>
<li><a href="http://www.rtve.es/alacarta/videos/dias-de-cine/lou-andreas-salome/4583837/?pais=US"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">VIDEO: Scenes from the Spanish release</span></a></li><li><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><a href="https://vimeo.com/ondemand/louthefilm">Watch the film on Vimeo</a></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.lou-andreas-salome.de/lexikon/lexikon-begriffe/lebensgebet.html">Salome's poem in German</a></span></li><li><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hrFUeimGfcc&t=2s"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">Nietzsche's musical setting of the poem</span></a><br /></li>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTrKbDumwQDz6F8nHulKLSWz0q7j5yw3lOptvgG1hGdkFYz4J06pcIwNYkJOqkkinbUL8T0rMrnhGtPIh_GHBw3rThF1azEIbfFJerc9oSWkl1wDxGBfeQojHdvoMWGkkbbvMBuNEcMIY/s1600/CugbY9wXgAAAmKS.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="425" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTrKbDumwQDz6F8nHulKLSWz0q7j5yw3lOptvgG1hGdkFYz4J06pcIwNYkJOqkkinbUL8T0rMrnhGtPIh_GHBw3rThF1azEIbfFJerc9oSWkl1wDxGBfeQojHdvoMWGkkbbvMBuNEcMIY/s640/CugbY9wXgAAAmKS.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The University of Zurich, where Salomé studied in 1880-81</span></td></tr>
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</div>Frank Beckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15289440558518599583noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2997564141294943836.post-50920866616172947332015-03-15T14:28:00.027-07:002024-03-21T10:56:52.339-07:00"To the sonnet with all my heart"<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTXzm9v2kcHg10WCvrlUf0z-CzXr8E0wt3KBaO5LiYsNtR28j128iNhvmV2MTV2uvAOXfJ7253KK6OtInva6gMY-yQaK1JVTPGcRvtn8UVWj808H67FGuZdaum3pzfpNhCDeoUx4cevsc/s1600/juan+ramon+jimenez%252B+-+1.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="767" data-original-width="550" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTXzm9v2kcHg10WCvrlUf0z-CzXr8E0wt3KBaO5LiYsNtR28j128iNhvmV2MTV2uvAOXfJ7253KK6OtInva6gMY-yQaK1JVTPGcRvtn8UVWj808H67FGuZdaum3pzfpNhCDeoUx4cevsc/s640/juan+ramon+jimenez%252B+-+1.jpg" width="457" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">In one wing there is infinite flight</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">and in each rose an elusive scent,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">like light darting from an open flame</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">or the blue of an unbroken sky.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">As in song there is consolation,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">in streaming jets a chill that pierces,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">and in a diamond a noble gleam,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">in me there is a constant yearning.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">In your shape, sonnet, this pure anguish</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">traces, as if in a quiet pool,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">all its sheer and undying wonders.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Radiant and ceaseless, your beauty</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">is -- like the sky seen in a fountain --</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">free of the limits of its borders.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-style: italic;">"Al soneto con mi alma" by Juan Ramón Jiménez</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-style: italic;">Translation by Frank Beck</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-style: italic;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-style: italic;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-style: italic;">One of my favorite poets is Andalusia's Juan Ramón Jiménez (1881-1958), who was awarded the 1956 Nobel Prize. </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-style: italic;">His imaginative leaps remind me of Rilke, and his work has the same insistence on confronting existence with open eyes and finding fresh ways of expressing its fundamental mysteries.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-style: italic;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-style: italic;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-style: italic;"> "Al soneto con mi alma" (</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-style: italic;">To the sonnet with all my heart</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-style: italic;">) is Jiménez's tribute to the formal structures that make poetry possible and to the sensual world from which they spring. It appeared at the head of the poet's </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-style: italic;">1916 collection, </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Sonetos Espirituales</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; font-style: italic;"> (Spiritual Sonnets).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-style: italic;">The same year </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Sonetos Espirituales</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-style: italic;"> was published, Ramón Jiménez married the Barcelona-born writer Zenobia Camprubi, and the two collaborated on many writing projects over the next 40 years. </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-style: italic;">A museum in Moguer, near Huelva in southwestern Andalusia, is dedicated to the couple; there's a link to its website below.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-style: italic;"><br /></span></span>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span><span style="font-size: large;">T</span></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">he sitting room at the Zenobia-Juan Ramón Jiménez House Museum in Moguer</span></td></tr>
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<ul>
<li><a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_KR4m2nl7cMQzNROXEtS18xMG8/view?usp=sharing&resourcekey=0-XJ1uP3OTysRKZ_FY_qhhkw" style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Ramón Jiménez reading the poem and four others from "Sonetos Espirituales"</span></a></li>
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<li><span style="color: blue; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><a href="https://cvc.cervantes.es/literatura/escritores/jrj/antologia/antologia09.htm" style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">The Spanish poem, from Centro Virtual Cervantes</a></span></li>
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<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><a href="https://utpress.utexas.edu/9780292788596/">Ramón Jiménez's best known work, "Platero and I"</a></span></li>
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<li><span style="color: blue; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://fundacion-jrj.es/">Zenobia and Juan Ramón Jiménez Foundation</a></span></li>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> The portrait is by Joaquín Sorolla; it was painted in 1916.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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</style>Frank Beckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15289440558518599583noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2997564141294943836.post-51267200444415494582015-03-15T14:28:00.022-07:002022-05-01T07:58:15.369-07:00Apus, Apus<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKBeIJ9Y7QQ36Z8awGCx0M8mAjYvmHqUuHZ6JjA_ZvQBhXZJT0lHnH32g9exlFDYUjcfSGcm0HBI_9s2B0XuNs8PYCPwTYq6yqxXxg8iMDkWKcJY74SzONA-43ECvFryvZzpg9fWWMzys/s1600/Hans+Magnus+Enzensberger_crop+-+1.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKBeIJ9Y7QQ36Z8awGCx0M8mAjYvmHqUuHZ6JjA_ZvQBhXZJT0lHnH32g9exlFDYUjcfSGcm0HBI_9s2B0XuNs8PYCPwTYq6yqxXxg8iMDkWKcJY74SzONA-43ECvFryvZzpg9fWWMzys/s1600/Hans+Magnus+Enzensberger_crop+-+1.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Hans Magnus Enzensberger in 2010</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">He weighs just forty grams.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">For months he lives in the air without a break--</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">hunts, loves and sleeps up there.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">He's indomitable.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">"Tyrannical, stormy, high-spirited,"</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">is what old Brehm calls him.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Shrill cries in a frantic, circling swarm;</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">furious fights of jealousy.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Awkward on the ground, he easily flies</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">three, four, five thousand meters high</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">over our heads, far away--</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">into the Tropics.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">He's streamlined.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">He manages without radar.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">He drinks as he glides across the water's surface.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">He's in synch with the weather.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">For so long he sails, motionless, with the thermals,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">but his swoop is swift.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Our amazement is nothing to him.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">"Apus, Apus" by Hans Magnus Enzensberger</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Translated by Frank Beck</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>Born in Bavaria in 1929, Hans Magnus Enzensberger is the dean of German-language poets. This poem, which takes its title from the Latin name for the common swift, appeared in his 2013 collection, </i>Blauwarts. Ein Ausflug zu dritt ("Blue warts: A trip for three").<i> The reference in line 6 is to German zoologist and illustrator Alfred Brehm (1829-1884).</i></span><br />
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<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.faz.net/aktuell/feuilleton/buecher/frankfurter-anthologie/frankfurter-anthologie-hans-magnus-enzensberger-apus-apus-14137641.html" style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">AUDIO: Enzensberger's poem in German, with commentary, from the Frankfurter Allgemeine</span></a></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8lu9hZnTueM">VIDEO: Enzensberger talks to the Louisiana Channel (English subtitles)</a></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/jun/12/new-selected-poems-hans-magnus-enzensberger-review">Sean O'Brien reviews Enzensberger's New Selected Poems (2015)</a></span></li>
</ul>
<br />Frank Beckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15289440558518599583noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2997564141294943836.post-89795376705798247462015-03-15T14:28:00.017-07:002021-06-05T04:44:05.612-07:00"He came to see us in rain and thunder"<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDCwt9UHxAgWc347_9QBj24hyphenhyphenM_a2xTxe6VOx1Ii3h4DAcnpHtJJ_58-n43Hx9F0yOIh7BY0F-5xLRdlf84O7j90VNHrbrhXSfQgP3dEqkNLVDesSL_BjlhGGANBvFDKqvftn_kl2Refo/s1600/Abigail+Miller.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDCwt9UHxAgWc347_9QBj24hyphenhyphenM_a2xTxe6VOx1Ii3h4DAcnpHtJJ_58-n43Hx9F0yOIh7BY0F-5xLRdlf84O7j90VNHrbrhXSfQgP3dEqkNLVDesSL_BjlhGGANBvFDKqvftn_kl2Refo/s1600/Abigail+Miller.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Soprano Abigail Miller</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">He came to see us in rain and thunder;</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">my heart was timid and turned against him.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">How could I know that, with every moment,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">life was drawing us together?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">He came to see us in rain and thunder;</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">his words were daring and won me over.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">But did he take me? Or did I win him?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">We drew close to one another.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">He came to see us in rain and thunder;</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">now springtime comes and bestows its blessings.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">My friend has left us, yet I am happy.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">With every step, we go together.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><i>Many of the lyric poems of Friedrich </i></span><i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">R<span style="line-height: 1.3;">ü</span>ckert (1788-1866) have become classic songs in the hands of composers ranging from Schubert to Bartok.</span></i><br />
<i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></i>
<i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">This is one of five </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">R</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; line-height: 1.3;">ü</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">ckert song settings that Clara Wieck Schumann composed in the spring of 1841, during the first year of her marriage to Robert Schumann. She was 22 (and six months pregnant), and her song is alive with all the impetuousness and tenderness of youth. You can hear soprano Abigail Miller perform it at the first link below.</span></i><br />
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<i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">As you can see, I've kept close to the cadences of the German poem, but I've used half-rhymes in place of the full ones </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">R</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; line-height: 1.3;">ü</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">ckert used:</span></i><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Er ist gekommen in Sturm und Regen,</span><br />
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Ihm schlug belkommen mein Herz entregen.</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Wie konnt’ ich ahen, daß seine Bahnen</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Sich einen sollten meinen Wegen.</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Er ist gekommen in Sturm und Regen,</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Er hat genommen mein Herz verwegen.</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Nahm er das meine? Nahm ich das seine?</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Die beiden kamen sich entgegen.</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Er ist gekommen in Sturm und Regen,</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Nun ist gekommen des Frühlings Segen.</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Der Freund zieht weiter, ich seh’ es heiter,</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Denn er bleibt mein auf allen Wegen.</span><br />
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
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<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><a href="https://vimeo.com/39898307">VIDEO: Abigail Miller sings Clara Schumann's setting of Ruckert's poem</a></span></li>
<li><a href="http://www.schumann-verein.de/"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The Schumann home in Leipzig where Clara wrote the song (in German)</span></a></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.schumann-portal.de/Biography-Clara.html">More about Clara Schumann (in English)</a></span></li>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOzPdZ04XsjBoDiApMz-9XM58zDmECqxTyPIJmKq9U3n59Fdlh-8ODiU5gGCt5al-Y13kXxyvccMj4cxhKcHF9dZcWhZTyLHjEkwOXRDusX8DpeJdx9KWRDFO1p8eIyB2LNxA-s2liI1g/s1600/Martina-Gedeck-in-Geliebte-Clara.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="552" data-original-width="800" height="440" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOzPdZ04XsjBoDiApMz-9XM58zDmECqxTyPIJmKq9U3n59Fdlh-8ODiU5gGCt5al-Y13kXxyvccMj4cxhKcHF9dZcWhZTyLHjEkwOXRDusX8DpeJdx9KWRDFO1p8eIyB2LNxA-s2liI1g/s640/Martina-Gedeck-in-Geliebte-Clara.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Martina Gedeck as Clara Schumann in 'Geliebte Clara' (2008)</span></td></tr>
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<br />Frank Beckhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15289440558518599583noreply@blogger.com0