Poetry anthology recommendations please

[Benny B]

Yeah, I suppose most of that comes from the more literal translations throwing up all kinds of strange stuff that also makes you think about English in a different way. I think it's very healthy for literature.

 

[woops]

look at it like this

i don't enjoy reading poetry in translation in a language i don't speak only cos i have the privilege of being more or less able to read french stuff in the original. i believe i can tell a bad translation of a french novel based on certain giveaways eg resort to cliché or anachronistic phrases.

so when i look at celan or whoever in translation i'm acutely aware that there's a dimension i'm missing out on, that's why i queried his translator above.

@luka doesn't have any other languages so he is in a sense lucky to be able to look at all translated poetry through the same monoglot lens.

i'd feel i were doing celan a disservice by not studying german to the level in which i can read baudelaire etc. it's not arrogance its just that i happen to have learned french to a reasonably good level

 

[luka]

but french is just one language among many. and a language which is basically exactly the same as english bar the pronuncuation

 

[luka]

television-televsion
chocolate-chocolate
hotel-hotel

its literally just how you pronounce the word

 

[luka]

but denying yourself any access to any other language just cos youre not fluent i think is proper mental.

 

[woops]

but french is just one language among many. and a language which is basically exactly the same as english bar the pronuncuation

i don't see how that contradicts what i've just said

i'm even less likely to read a chinese poem properly than one in spansih

 

[luka]

i would be more likely to read chinese cos spainish language poets are hysterical very over emotional

 

[luka]

spanish laguage poets are like

the white marble corpse of you arm
death in the harrowed field
i reap the whirlwind of the betrayed

 

[Corpsey]

Finally some good stuff!

 

[woops]

but denying yourself any access to any other language just cos youre not fluent i think is proper mental.

well this is where we differ cos to me reading any poet in a language you don't speak to a let's say advanced level would be mental to me.

 

[luka]

green with absinthe death corpse of my mother
i dance the flamenco of mourning

 

[luka]

well this is where we differ cos to me reading any poet in a language you don't speak to a let's say advanced level would be mental to me.

self sabotaging snobbery

 

[luka]

you cant have an experience like the translated version of rilkes ninth elegy anywhere else so why would you deny yourself that expansion of the soul?

 

[woops]

spanish laguage poets in translation are like

the white marble corpse of you arm
death in the harrowed field
i reap the whirlwind of the betrayed

self sabotaging snobbery

i can't unlearn french so i'm stuck with it. like i said you're lucky in that sense.

having said that i've also noticed that i'm probably quite a bad reader of french poetry 'cos after 2 or 3 lines i'm totally seduced by the beauty of the french language, whatever is being "said"/"expressed"/whatever it is they're doing

 

[luka]

i think you massively overate your knowledge of french and the insight it gives you into language generally. you have basic conversational french, nothing more

 

[luka]

most french people dont understand you cos of your accent anyway

 

[luka]

the truth is you would get vastly more out of a rimbaud translation than you would struggling with the original

 

[luka]

but snobbery....

 

[luka]

no one speaks another language. no human truly has more than one language. thats my beleif.

 

[luka]

pick one and stick to it. we should be grateful we speak the best language with the best pop songs and the best literature and the best telly.