Friday, February 04, 2005
Thursday, February 03, 2005
Baudelaire
Get Drunk!
Always be drunk.
That's it!
The great imperative!
In order not to feel
Time's horrid fardel
bruise your shoulders,
grinding you into the earth,
Get drunk and stay that way.
On what?
On wine, poetry, virtue, whatever.
But get drunk.
And if you sometimes happen to wake up
on the porches of a palace,
in the green grass of a ditch,
in the dismal loneliness of your own room,
your drunkenness gone or disappearing,
ask the wind,
the wave,
the star,
the bird,
the clock,
ask everything that flees,
everything that groans
or rolls
or sings,
everything that speaks,
ask what time it is;
and the wind,
the wave,
the star,
the bird,
the clock
will answer you:
"Time to get drunk!
Don't be martyred slaves of Time,
Get drunk!
Stay drunk!
On wine, virtue, poetry, whatever!"
Charles Baudelaire
Other translation can be found here: http://www-as.phy.ohiou.edu/~rouzie/fall153/final_projects/final_project/absolut.html
Wednesday, February 02, 2005
Hölderlin
Hyperions Schicksalslied
Ihr wandelt droben im licht
auf weichen Boden, selige Genien!
Glänzende Götterlüfte
Rühren euch leicht,
Wie die Finger der Künstlerin
Heilige Saiten.
Schicksallos, wie der schlafende
Säugling, atmen die Himmlischen;
Keusch bewahrt
In bescheidener Knopse,
Blühet ewig
Ihnen der Geist,
Und die seligen Augen
Blicken in stiller
Ewiger Klarheit.
Doch uns ist gegeben,
Auf keiner Stätte zu ruhn,
Es schwinden, es fallen
Die leidenden Menschen
Blindelings von einer
Stunde zur andern,
Wie Wasser von Klippe
Zu Klippe geworfen,
Jahr lang ins Ungewisse hinab.
.......................................
English translation by James Mitchell can be found here:
http://home.att.net/~holderlin/poem/hyperion.htm
Tuesday, February 01, 2005
Little snip from Lorca
lines (snipped from one of his poems) wich i find beautiful:
original wich i can't read/understand:
'Thamár, en tus pechos altos
hay dos peces que me llaman,
y en las yemas de tus dedos
rumor de rosa encerrada.'
in dutch:
'er is in je vingertoppen
een gevangen roos te verstaan'
english translations
'Thamar, you have in your high breasts
two fishes that call to me,
and in your fingertips
the murmur of a captive rose.'
'.. in the buds of your fingertips
murmur of enclosed rose'
'and through your fingers there goes
the buzzing of a rose in its bud'
eh i dont like the last translation.
hope i can find some more.
original wich i can't read/understand:
'Thamár, en tus pechos altos
hay dos peces que me llaman,
y en las yemas de tus dedos
rumor de rosa encerrada.'
in dutch:
'er is in je vingertoppen
een gevangen roos te verstaan'
english translations
'Thamar, you have in your high breasts
two fishes that call to me,
and in your fingertips
the murmur of a captive rose.'
'.. in the buds of your fingertips
murmur of enclosed rose'
'and through your fingers there goes
the buzzing of a rose in its bud'
eh i dont like the last translation.
hope i can find some more.
Monday, January 31, 2005
Another Kissing Poem For Miss Moogie
Catullus - Carmen 7
You ask how many kissings of you,
Lesbia, are for me and more than enough.
As great as the number of the Libyan sand
that lies on silphium-bearing Cyrene,
between the oracle of sultry Jove
and the sacred tomb of old Battus;
or as many as the stars, when night is silent,
that see the stolen loves of men,
to kiss you with so many kisses
is enough and more than enough for your Catullus;
kisses, which neither curious eyes may count up
nor an evil tongue bewitch.
-------------
Dutch Translation Follows
You ask how many kissings of you,
Lesbia, are for me and more than enough.
As great as the number of the Libyan sand
that lies on silphium-bearing Cyrene,
between the oracle of sultry Jove
and the sacred tomb of old Battus;
or as many as the stars, when night is silent,
that see the stolen loves of men,
to kiss you with so many kisses
is enough and more than enough for your Catullus;
kisses, which neither curious eyes may count up
nor an evil tongue bewitch.
-------------
Dutch Translation Follows