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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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Sea Poems of Juan Ramón Jiménez
The great Juan Ramón Jiménez often drew inspiration from the sea, and a great many of his sea poems are brought together in The Poet and the Sea, translated by Mary G. Berg and Dennis Maloney. What follows is one of my favorites: IDEAL ARRIVAL February 11 To Joaquín Sorolla Suddenly, the afternoon opens out, like a golden fan, a great royal illusion.Read More
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Ángel González’s “Penultimate Nostalgia”
I didn’t post at all last week because we were in Mexico. I noticed there was no hue-and-cry! Nevertheless, I want to report that I read some wonderful books in swimming palm-leaf shade and the rustle of surf. Let me start with this poem by the great Spanish expatriate poet Ángel González, from a collection translated with great subtlety by E. A. Mares, Casí Toda La Música y otros poemas (in English, Almost All the Music and Other Poems). It’s pretty long, but I can’t resist sharing it: Penultimate Nostalgia The time for nostalgiahas arrived.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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Pleasure and Intrigue
Today Jonathan Mayhew posted this handy list of four reading categories on his ¡Bemsha SWING! blog. He attributes them to the poet Guillermo Carnero and gives them in Spanish, which I’ll translate here: I like it and it interests me.I like it but I’m not interested.I don’t like it but it interests me.I neither like it nor am I interested. What makes these categories useful, I think, is that they are both comprehensive and subjective.Read More
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The Only Homeland
Asked to speak for 20 minutes in Vienna on the subject of “Literature and Exile,” Roberto Bolaño delivered a mordant speech that included this wonderful passage: Literature and exile, I think, are two sides of the same coin, our fate placed in the hands of chance. “I don’t have to leave my house to see the world,” says the Tao Te Ching, yet even when one doesn’t leave one’s house, exile and banishment make their presence felt from the start. Kafka’s oeuvre, the most illuminating and terrible (and also the humblest) of the twentieth century, proves this exhaustively.Read More
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Adios, Mario Benedetti
at the airportI bought a tangoin the shop of good-byes —Mario Benedetti (tr. Carlos Reyes) The great Uruguayan poet, novelist, and political activist Mario Benedetti has died. A more extensive obituary, in Spanish, can be found here. (Thanks to Ana for the latter link.) A number of Benedetti poems can be found here in Spanish and a few in translation here and here.Read More
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Rich and Poor Revisited
It turns out that the translation of the cartoon I included in my just-previous post is, in fact, based on a Spanish translation of an English language original by Australian artist, animator and cartoonist Peter Nicholson.Read More
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Rich and Poor
Below is my translation of a cartoon posted recently on Ana’s blog, along with her usual clever and insightful commentary.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
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. 
