Poetry anthology recommendations please

[Benny Bunter]

That Breathcrystal one really appeals to me cos of the compound words and neologisms, not that I really understand it yet. But there's a quote from Celan in that anthology that I love where he says "reality is not simply there, it has to be searched and won" by creating new language.

I like all the compound words in Pound and H.D. as well, "hail-scur" and suchlike. Noticed one or two in your book as well actually.

 

[luka]

they can be done really badly. hopefully i do them ok. theyre good when theyre good arent they.

 

[Corpsey]

Joyce does that a lot

 

[luka]

badly as a rule

 

[luka]

i dont think joyce is uniformaly awful but his bad traits are unforgivable

 

[Benny Bunter]

I think I hate Joyce tbh. And I really did try with Ulysses. He's just kind of embarrassing though.

 

[luka]

he a sad dweeb. total nob.

 

[Benny Bunter]

And a massive pervert. He makes my skin crawl just to look at him.

Fair enough he was a language innovator, but he was far from the only one from around that time, his reputation is massively inflated iyam.

That said, some good bits in Dubliners and portrait.

 

[luka]

i fucking hate the irish too

 

[woops]

yeah thats why i said to edmund hmmmm youre oversimplifying here

Both of you get bent. Anyway I've bought nightwood today which is "as important to the history of the 20thC novel as Finnegans Wake—and more readable."

 

[luka]

nightwood is twee as fuck. ive got it too but its unreadable. girls book.

 

[woops]

nightwood is twee as fuck. ive got it too but its unreadable. girls book.

As Eliot said only sensibilities trained on poetry can wholly appreciate it

 

[luka]

youll hate it. honestly its so awful. it does have some period anti semitism in it tho.

 

[Benny Bunter]

Woops doesn't trust any poetry in translation it seems. Very wary of it.

 

[luka]

Woops doesn't trust any poetry in translation it seems. Very wary of it.

i think its just snobbery. just cos he knows french.

 

[luka]

i really like poetry in translation. it has its own character. it shaped my sense of what poetry is and should and could be.

 

[Benny Bunter]

Was gonna say it's cos he knows French. I started a thread about it, bigging him up on his own french transactions and everything but he ignored it

 

[luka]

he only knows french. so hes missing out on, eg, rilke, holderlien, celan, heine, just to name some krauts. its very silly.

 

[Benny Bunter]

he only knows french. so hes missing out on, eg, rilke, holderlien, celan, heine, just to name some krauts. its very silly.

I can sort of understand it to an extent cos I love Lorca and all the translations I've seen have done my head in, but been loving a lot the German stuff I've read in the PFM anthology (Rilke and Trakl especially). Maybe if I knew German I'd feel the same way about them but I dunno, but I really admire the art of translation and some stuff translates better than others, daft to just dismiss it all.

 

[luka]

but also translated poetry has a texture and feel distinctive to itself that is quite exotic and glamourous imo