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Hugo Claus—A Goodbye and a Poem
“Belgian writer, poet and artist Hugo Claus has died aged 78, ending his life by euthanasia, his wife has said.” I knew Hugo Claus’s poetry only from anthologies until recently, when I stumbled upon his Greetings: Selected Poems.Read More
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Robert Fagles’ Last Translation
“Robert Fagles, the renowned translator of Latin and Greek whose versions of Homer and Virgil were unlikely best sellers and became fixtures on classroom reading lists, died on Wednesday at his home in Princeton, N.J., where he was an emeritus professor at Princeton University.Read More
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Adios, Jonathan Williams
Ron Silliman has posted a small fortune of information about the unjustly neglected North Carolina poet Jonathan Williams here.Read More
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Another Language Vanishes
“Chief Marie Smith Jones, the last full-blooded Eyak and last Native speaker of the Eyak language, died Monday….” ==> Full Story Here Some related thoughts: Is the passing of a language the passing of a people? That is, how are we to think about the surviving Eyaks? Does it matter that none of the surviving Eyaks (apparently) are full-blooded? What relationship (if any) does a language have to the “bloodedness” of its speakers? Do different languages encode differing and characteristic modes of perception? For example, does a Japanese-only speaker perceive things that I, who don’t speak Japanese, cannot perceive? Can…Read More
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Adios, Ángel González
The fine anti-Franco poet’s obituary appeared in The Miami Herald. Here’s my (inadequate) translation of his poem “Hope…”: Hope,black twilight spider.You haltnot far from my forsakenbody, you scuttlearound me,rapidly weavingtenuous invisible threads,you draw near, relentless,and almost caress me with your shadowheavyand light at once. Clenchedunder rocks and hours,patient, you awaited the comingof this eveningwhere nothing nowis possible… My heart:your nest. Bite into it, hope.Read More
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Jane Rule, 1931-2007
A few weeks ago I had the odd experience of hearing someone speaking with Terry Gross on Fresh Air—a voice I seemed to know but couldn’t quite place. Toward the end of the interview, when Terry asked, “What made you decide to write novels?” The voice replied: “To tell the truth.” After the interview ended, Terry added, “That was an excerpt from my 1988 interview with the Canadian writer Jane Rule, who passed away on November 27th.” Strange the way news reaches us these days. But the shock is the same as if it had come by registered letter.Read More
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Charles McGrath on Mailer
I’ve not been the biggest Norman Mailer fan over the years, but that may reflect my own considerable limitations. My favorite of his books is still The Deer Park, where his fascination with personal violence is almost entirely absent.Read More
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Goodbye, Jane
One of my favorite poets, Jane Cooper, has passed way. She ventured from early, almost reticent lyrics to sprawling, powerful late mediations, and her 1974 essay entitled “Nothing Has Been Used in the Manufacture of This Poetry that Could Have Been Used in the Manufacture of Bread” is a classic apologia that illuminates the struggles women of her generation faced in becoming and remaining writers. Her collected poems, The Flashboat, is a book I return to often—and each new visit brings a fresh discovery.Read More
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Recent Passings
Adios to two fine poets, Jon Anderson and Len Roberts.Read More