Poetry

[woops]

i have just finished a big binge on Forster which led me to his time in Alexandria during WW1 where he met Cavafy. I'd forgotten how much i liked him - a totally distinctive voice which could come across quite arid - so many poems about obscure characters from classic antiquity - but some kind of beauty in there that i find very moving. I think i am always swayed by a sentimental strain in poetry... Again, i'm going to guess that he suffers from less good translations early on which more modern editions are attempting to fix.

C. P. Cavafy | Poetry Foundation

C.P. Cavafy is widely considered the most distinguished Greek poet of the 20th century. He was born in Alexandria, Egypt, where his Greek parents had settled in the mid-1850s. Cavafy’s father was an importer-exporter whose business responsibilities frequently led him to the port city of Liverpool,…

www.poetryfoundation.org

went past his house in belgravia yest we rday

 

[sufi]

went past his house in belgravia yest we rday

I lived in Alex for a year, Cavafy is such an Iskandrani, crumbling classical edifices and so on

 

[mixed_biscuits]

A Short Story of Falling​

BY ALICE OSWALD

It is the story of the falling rain
to turn into a leaf and fall again

it is the secret of a summer shower
to steal the light and hide it in a flower

and every flower a tiny tributary
that from the ground flows green and momentary

is one of water's wishes and this tale
hangs in a seed-head smaller than my thumbnail

if only I a passerby could pass
as clear as water through a plume of grass

to find the sunlight hidden at the tip
turning to seed a kind of lifting rain drip

then I might know like water how to balance
the weight of hope against the light of patience

water which is so raw so earthy-strong
and lurks in cast-iron tanks and leaks along

drawn under gravity towards my tongue
to cool and fill the pipe-work of this song

which is the story of the falling rain
that rises to the light and falls again

 

[droid]

 

[Benny Bunter]

@woops

Comme le fruit se fond en jouissance,
Comme en délice il change son absence
Dans une bouche où sa forme se meurt,
Je hume ici ma future fumée,
Et le ciel chante à l'âme consumée
Le changement des rives en rumeur.

 

[Benny Bunter]

Need recommendations of collections of Valéry's prose writings, seems like there's mountains of the stuff out there

Been reading some of the poetry in Spanish (which it seems to translate pretty well into, unlike the English versions I've seen on the net) and loving it, especially Le Cimetière marin, which reminds me quite a bit of Wallace Stevens, and Les Pas is one of the most perfect poems I've ever read.

But yeah, what about the prose stuff? (In English obviously, my French is extremely basic)

 

[craner]

Why?

 

[Benny Bunter]

Why?

Why what?

 

[luka]

Need recommendations of collections of Valéry's prose writings, seems like there's mountains of the stuff out there

Been reading some of the poetry in Spanish (which it seems to translate pretty well into, unlike the English versions I've seen on the net) and loving it, especially Le Cimetière marin, which reminds me quite a bit of Wallace Stevens, and Les Pas is one of the most perfect poems I've ever read.

But yeah, what about the prose stuff? (In English obviously, my French is extremely basic)

just read the new directions collected its really great

 

[luka]

i read it when i was about 12 i dunno whats kept you

 

[luka]

proper shit cover like their mate in school done it

Selected Writings Of Paul Valery

This selection from representative works of the great French poet-philosopher is based on the Paris Morceaux Choisis volume, which was assembled by Valery himself. It begins with the poetry (French and English en face), including such masterpieces as “Le C...

www.ndbooks.com

 

[Benny Bunter]

You twats

 

[luka]

i literally told you what you wanted to know wtf

 

[craner]

Why what?

Why are you interested in reading Paul Valery?

Genuine, innocent question!

 

[luka]

it's really, really good craner. you should read it too. i read it when i was about 12.

 

[Benny Bunter]

Why are you interested in reading Paul Valery?

Genuine, innocent question!

I have been reading him for the last week and I want to to read more cos I liked it, what a weird question

 

[luka]

i was more like 19 or 20. to be totally honest. bt it's genuinely amazing. i don't rate the poems.

 

[luka]

valery is odd in that he decided he wanted his poetry to be entirely conscious. but poetry can't be written with the conscious mind.

 

[luka]

it's not that he couldn't write poetry in the usual fashion, but he just developed some scruple about it. so he stopped. i think he came up with the line i like that goes something like
the first line is from the gods, then you have to match it

 

[craner]

I have been reading him for the last week and I want to to read more cos I liked it, what a weird question

Yeah but, like, why?