It's that time of year again

[timeripple]

Yesterday during the rainstorm I was in the library to pick up a book, as I often am, and was browsing the poetry section looking for Pushkin. See, I read yuki_onna ’s new book Deathless a few days ago, and while it’s pretty stark for her (which would be linguistically lush and layered for anyone else), I ate it up, and it’s making me remember a big book of Russian fairy tales I had as a child. (Yeah, there pretty much always WAS an Ivan.) And I wanted to check out some Pushkin, since he features so strongly in Deathless. I didn’t find anything about Koschei, but I did find this:


Sleep I cannot find, nor light:
Everywhere is dark and slumber,
Only weary tickings number
The slow hours of the night.
Parca, jabbering, woman-fashion,
Sleeping night, without compassion,
Life, who stirs like rustling mice,
Why encage me in thy vise?
Why the whispering insistence,—
Art thou but the pale persistence
Of a day departed twice?
What black failures dost thou reckon?
Dost thou prophesy or beckon?
I would know whence thou art sprung,
I would study thy dark tongue…


(“Verses Written During a Sleepless Night.” Deutsch and Yarmolinsky, comps. Modern Russian Poetry, 1921. I tell you, if my nights were sleepless then at least I wouldn't be having dreams about being a thoroughly useless human being.)

I quite like it, even if my own recent attempts at Catullus (98, rendered clumsily by me as “Victus the Stinkbreath”) have thrown me into despair and convinced me that I should just learn all languages ever and read things in the original, because many accurate translations are terrible poetry, and many decent poems are not at all accurate translations.

...Russian only has one alphabet, right? How hard can it be?

Happy Poetry Month.

Comments

[satakieli.livejournal.com]

One logical solution is to learn every language. Another logical solution is to give up poetry. Another one is to decide that poets who share one's own first language are either the best or simply the only ones worth reading. I applaud your desire to choose the first. Good luck with that (this is possibly the first time I've used that phrase completely untinged with sarcasm). (I appear to have chosen the second myself, mostly... and I'm guessing that a lot of people choose the last by default, without realizing they've made a choice. Then again, there can also be the element of, "you haven't experienced Shakespeare until you've read him in the original Klingon.")

[timeripple.livejournal.com]

Heh. Eheheheheh. Well, I think most of my personal problem is that English is so darned clunky compared to, say, Latin. Sigh.

"you haven't experienced Shakespeare until you've read him in the original Klingon."

I STILL haven't seen the episode or movie or whatever when that actually happens. D: FAIL TREKKIE HERE.

[satakieli.livejournal.com]

It's from The Undiscovered Country, the sixth movie. Fortunately, it follows the pattern of the even-numbered movies not sucking, so you should totally see it sometime.

edited to fix my broken html tag, sorry.

[kaequest.livejournal.com]

I haven't read any of her stuff. Any recommendations on which to start with?

[timeripple.livejournal.com]

*flails* I hardly know where to begin! No matter what I say, it'll be throwing you in the deep end. The Orphan's Tales are my favorite, but you might really like Palimpsest, not least because it has a shinkansen fetish and I know you like Japan. Anyway you only have to keep track of four narratives, instead of umpteen. In Deathless there's only the one, and I feel like there's a real shift toward simplicity. I guess it depends on whether you're in the mood for Postmodern (But Seriously Luscious) Arabian Nights, Sexually Transmitted City Ahoy With Train Fetish, or Fairytale Soviet Russia.

[kaequest.livejournal.com]

Postmodern (But Seriously Luscious) Arabian Nights, Sexually Transmitted City Ahoy With
Train Fetish, or Fairytale Soviet Russia.

Okay I am definitely reading ALL OF THOSE.

Hmmm....kind of makes me think of Sucker Punch actually! Postmodern samurai, WWII dieselpunk nazis, and fairytale dragons :)

[satakieli.livejournal.com]

I heartily second the recommendation for Palimpsest for you. It's the only one of her books that I've yet read, though I recently purchased another that I'm saving for, well, next week probably. (Although I actually had a rather unpleasant idiosyncratic reaction to Palimpsest that resulted in discomfort bordering on dislike, obviously I like her writing enough that I went right out and got her next book, and yes, I have reason to believe you really don't share that particular idiosyncrasy of mine. Not to mention I think you'll really like it, for all the reasons timeripple is saying and several more she's leaving unsaid.)

[timeripple.livejournal.com]

What (or at least, A Thing) satakieli isn't saying is, don't read Palimpsest within sneak-peeking range of small children. ;)

[satakieli.livejournal.com]

Heh... That too, though it's not quite what I had in mind.

(Or on an airplane.)

[kaequest.livejournal.com]

Also, I actually appreciate Japanese poetry MORE than English poetry, and Japanese definitely isn't my native language! But then again, I agree that translations of Japanese poetry rarely capture the full effect. It takes a lot of skill to properly translate a haiku for instance, and even Donald Keene disappoints me :P I just wish I knew more kanji so I could read poetry without having to use a goddamn kanji dictionary every 5 seconds!

[snowqueenofhoth.livejournal.com]

日本語ができるのが忘れちゃった。(・｡・;)

[timeripple.livejournal.com]

Oh man, Donald Keene. I remember back when we were both in Japanese Lit class and once in a while there'd be something awesome, a poem that really stuck with me, but mostly I was like, "...I don't get it D:" But that one, "frigid as the setting moon?" That was great, although I'm really not sure "frigid" is a great word there. OH HEY remember the one about the seaweed? XD

I think it's easier to appreciate poetry in a language that's not your native one, because you're already paying closer attention to the words and structure than you would be if you could just read it.

[snowqueenofhoth.livejournal.com]

...good luck with that.

[timeripple.livejournal.com]

Thanks! ;P

[a4yroldfaerie.livejournal.com]

<3

that is all.

Also, we are publishing a Pushkin thing soon, I will see if I an get a copy for you and give it to you when you come visit me in NY?

(see what I did there? It was subtle)

[timeripple.livejournal.com]

Sweet!

(I see what u did thar. It was subtle! I'm definitely going to BEA, so... next month? Will YOU be at BEA? And how do you feel about maybe re-dying my hair?)