tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3500144491563926221.post7011902859697911229..comments2023-10-30T12:12:01.337+02:00Comments on Light Scrape: I feel the flesh of the mountain move on its bones in the wet darknessJuha Haatajahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00361255734892508254noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3500144491563926221.post-91518542720695839942011-12-13T19:53:16.163+02:002011-12-13T19:53:16.163+02:00@Paul: I missed your real question, about Jeffers:...@Paul: I missed your real question, about Jeffers: he is not easy at all. I sense there is some kind of gestalt in the poems, but it doesn't fully open. It may, in time.Juha Haatajahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00361255734892508254noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3500144491563926221.post-71028964015115093112011-12-13T19:44:46.895+02:002011-12-13T19:44:46.895+02:00@Markus: Thanks, today I managed to go out for a w...@Markus: Thanks, today I managed to go out for a walk, maybe this is getting better.Juha Haatajahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00361255734892508254noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3500144491563926221.post-66016295990648593312011-12-13T19:44:17.513+02:002011-12-13T19:44:17.513+02:00@Paul: I tried to find Finnish translations of Eng...@Paul: I tried to find Finnish translations of English poems that made an impact, but that proved to be time-consuming and difficult. So I'm looking from the other direction as well: reading anthologies of poems translated into Finnish and then checking out how the original reads.<br /><br />As an example, I just borrowed from the library an anthology of English, Scottish and Irish poems, originally written by Fleur Adcock, Simon Armitage, John Burnside, Ciaran Carson, Kate Clanchy, Carol Ann Duffy, Helen Dunmore, Geoffrey Hill, Kathleen Jamie, Jackie Kay, Michael Longley, Don Paterson, Deryn Rees-Jones, Robin Robertson, Jo Shapcott, Pauline Stainer - none of which I knew previously. (The name of the book is "Kuuna päivänä".)<br /><br />We are also reading with the children a book of translated poems and stories, including work by Whitman and Eliot. Children loved these.<br /><br />Another thing altogether are poems translated from Chinese or Japanese ... It seems impossible that any meaning can survive, so different are the languages. But we have excellent translators (poets themselves) in Finland, who have created translated poems which operate quite like photographs, as if they were not put together of words at all.<br /><br />In fact, it is remarkable how Chinese poems seem to breathe lived life, not speak in abstractions as so much of western poetry.<br /><br />And this is even more remarkable when you note that Gongsun Long (ca. 325–250 BC) pondered questions which western logicians and set theorists invented much, much later.<br /><br />And Morley Baer - I didn't know about him, there is so much to learn...Juha Haatajahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00361255734892508254noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3500144491563926221.post-14163472110602661912011-12-13T00:43:18.504+02:002011-12-13T00:43:18.504+02:00Juha, my best wishes for a fast recovery!Juha, my best wishes for a fast recovery!Markushttp://markus-spring.infonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3500144491563926221.post-75765008159826076552011-12-12T23:17:54.103+02:002011-12-12T23:17:54.103+02:00I see your project of reading English poetry to se...I see your project of reading English poetry to see how it translates continues.<br /><br />Robinson Jeffers. Well written evocative stuff although he does tend to be a bit more pessimistic about humanity than I am, which is really saying something.<br /><br />Interestingly, I first encountered his poetry in a book of photos by Morley Baer. <br /><br />How does his stuff come across to someone for whom English is not their first language?Paul Butzinoreply@blogger.com