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Since I Don’t Speak German…
… I thought I’d try translating Rainer Maria Rilke‘s great poem, “Archaïscher Torso Apollos.” Hey—even our pizza delivery guy has tried his hand at this one! For background, I think the single most interesting, if sometimes oddball, commentaries on translating this poem is this one by Art Beck. He looks are a number of translators’ efforts, including those by J. B. Leishman, M. D. Herter Norton, C. F. MacIntyre, Stephen Mitchell, David Young, Edward Snow, and William Gass—the last for whom Beck reserves his harshest critique.Read More
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Celebrate Armistice Day with “War of Words”
Click here to order or reserve tickets. Just $5 each! On Veterans Day, November 11, One Night Stand Theater will present a theatrical piece I created called “War of Words,” first performed at the Arvada Center earlier this year. November 11 is the 100th anniversary of Armistice Day, which marked the end of World War I. With that in mind, “War of Words” features poetry of “The Great War,” primarily poetry by Americans such as Carl Sandburg, Edith Wharton, Robert Frost, Wallace Stevens, and many others.Read More
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The Satire Lounge
The Satire Lounge is Joe’s 16th collection of poems. Title: The Satire Lounge Publisher: Folded Word ISBN: 978-1-61019-227-9 Publication Date: August 21, 2015 Length: 42 pages Binding: Trade paper From the back cover: “The Satire Lounge is a guide to the underbelly of the writing world, lit by a lone ‘laptop’s screenlight glint’ and fed by ‘Mike’s Fine Sardines.’ Here, ‘Thought Police’ patrol ‘high-speed poetry,’ while cowpies take over haiku.Read More
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Poetry Month 2015: César Vallejo
It’s almost certainly a fool’s errand for someone like me, whose Spanish has such a limited scope, to attempt translating César Vallejo. His language is famously thorny in the original, and the temptation in bringing him over into English is either to be as literal as possible or to sand away his edges by over-demystifying his torqued tropes. I’ve taken the middle road. In the end, I have to admit that I don’t comprehend the poem, though I feel I understand it, and I know I haven’t served it as well as it deserves.Read More
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Borges and His “Christ on the Cross”
I’ve been following a fine freelance translator named A. Z. Foreman, who it seems has never met a language he doesn’t know. His Poems in Translation site is full of gems imported from a dozen or more different languages, including ancient Greek, Persian, Arabic, French, German, and Russian.Read More
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What Age is Worth
Years ago I discovered Ausonius in Helen Waddell‘s wonderful book The Wandering Scholars. (See the first part of my earlier post.) Although I took three semesters of Latin in high school, I promptly forgot most of it, and so my effort to translate the Ausonius epigram below relied on a Latin dictionary and a Loeb Library translation by Hugh G. Evelyn White.Read More
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Francisco Hernández Reads the Signs
I’ve been having fun trying to translate some poems by Francisco Hernández. He’s difficult because he often puns on idiomatic phrases. In the following case, his statements about poetry involve plays on phrases commonly found on road signs. That said… Francisco Hernández& Antojo de Trampa (the bookthis poem is taken from) Respete Las Señales Para Toño Valle No deje poemassobre el pavimento. Página izquierdasólo para rebasar. Endecasílabosa 150 m. Conceda cambiode estrofas. Precaución:entrada y salida de sonetos. No rebase con rima continua. Poesía urbana:velocidad restringida. No maltrate las vocales. Poemas con más de 10 versos,por la autopista.Read More
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By the Way: Poem with Aside by Parra
Nicanor Parra (Fotografía: Pin Campaña) Jóvenespor Nicanor Parra Escriban lo que quieren.En el estilo que les parezca mejor.Ha pasado demasiada sangre bajo los puentesPara seguir creyendoQue sólo se puede seguir un camino.En poesía se permite todo.A condición expresa por ciertoDe superar la página en blanco.Read More
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The Spirit of Place
Here I am in Mexico, earlier than usual this year, though we may be back again in April. As ever, I’ve brought some Spanish translations along to enhance what Lawrence called “the Spirit of Place.” One is Roberto Bolaño’a novel of murder and sexual obsession, The Skating Rink, at least one quote from which will be turning up in this week’s Friday Notebook. I’ve also been reading Stephen Kessler’s fine translations of Luis Cernuda‘s last poems, Desolation of the Chimera.Read More
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The Music of Borges
I’ve had great amateur fun in the past playing with translation, which for me is an adventure as much in sound as in meaning. While reading the new Penguin bilingual edition of Jorge Luis Borges’s sonnets, a book that highlights a side of Borges American readers may be unfamiliar with, I was struck by how strong the translations are overall. (This is a tribute to the collection’s editor, Stephen Kessler.) So strong are these versions, in fact, that the weaker ones—a fraction of the 137 poems gathered here—really stand out. One version in particular, Alan S.Read More
Joseph Hutchison, Colorado Poet Laureate 2014-2019, has published 20 collections of poems and edited or co-edited three poetry anthologies. He currently directs two master’s-level programs for University College at the University of Denver: Professional Creative Writing and Arts & Culture Management. Joe lives with his wife, Melody Madonna, in the mountains southwest of Denver, Colorado, the city where he was born. 
