Better Than Starbucks Poetry Translations Dec 2016

Translations

with S. Ye Laird

-- Translating William Edgar Stafford ( 1914 - 1993 )

http://www.williamstaffordarchives.org/

A Ritual to Read to Each Other

If you don't know the kind of person I am

and I don't know the kind of person you are

a pattern that others made

may prevail in the world

and following the wrong god home

we may miss our star.

For there is many a small betrayal in the mind,

a shrug that lets the fragile sequence break

sending with shouts the horrible errors of childhood

storming out to play through the broken dike.

And as elephants parade holding each elephant's tail,

but if one wanders the circus won't find the park,

I call it cruel and maybe the root of all cruelty

to know what occurs but not recognize the fact.[1]

And so I appeal to a voice, to something shadowy,

a remote important region in all who talk:

though we could fool each other, we should consider—

lest the parade of our mutual life get lost in the dark.

For it is important that awake people be awake,

or a breaking line may discourage them back to sleep;

the signals we give — yes or no, or maybe —

should be clear: the darkness around us is deep.

唱对台戏 by S. Ye Laird

如果我对你一竅不通

你對我也一無所知

我俩的世界由他人的篤信而成全

要是我们还跟錯了救世主

闪闪红星也与你我无缘。

腦海的如意算盤终究有一丝癮患，

一不小心一个恍惚珠機全盘断落。

年少气盛时的振振有词，

如洪水破堤一往而不可收拾。

如同马戏班里的象群

一个接着另一个沉重的脚步而行

单枪匹马在戏班中很难找到戏路

我以为这有點惨不忍睹，

亦或是所有悲剧的根源:

只知台词而对戲路不聞不问。[1]

于是乎，我向天籁之音祈祷

探求所有生灵的话外语

虽然我们习惯于装腔作势，

在戏班外的人生舞台，

何需暗中假戏真作？

关键是明白之人做明白之事

若以一言以毙之，岂不只剩混世魔王之徒？

所有信以为真的人: 是与非或是或非

-- 必须言从心镜

世道的黑暗何其甚乎？

[1]Note: This marks a turning point in the translation when it deviated from the tone of the original. "Not recognize the fact" gets translated as 「對戲路不聞不問」. The English original alludes to a type of unintentional ignorance whereas the Chinese version explicitly mentions it as indifference. On a related note, the translated version perhaps overemphasizes the elephant/circus imagery in the original and takes it all the way to the end of the poem. For example, 「人生舞台」 (life as a stage), 「假戲真做」(loose translation: "acting"out fictional plot lines in real life). - by H.Lee

Two poems by Daniil Kharms (1905 - 1942)

-- Translated by Alex Cigale*

«Люблю порой смотреть в окно…»

Люблю порой смотреть в окно

И наблюдать других людей заботы

Люблю порой смотреть в окно

Тем самым уклоняясь от работы.

Я долго, пристально смотрю

В лицо молоденькой еврейки

Стараясь прочитать в чертах её лица

Законы женских чар

I love at times to look out the window

And to observe other people's concerns.

I love at times to look out the window

And through this leave behind my work.

For a long time I stare very intently

Into the face of a young Jewish girl

Seeking to decipher in her expressions

The regulations of womanly charms.

1936 - 1937

Я долго думал об орлах

и понял многое:

орлы летают в облаках,

летают никого не трогая.

Я понял, что живут орлы на скалах и в горах

и дружат с водяными духами.

Я долго думал об орлах,

но спутал, кажется, их с мухами.

I thought of eagles for a long time

and understood such a whole lot:

the eagles soar above the clouds,

they fly and fly and touch no one.

They live on cliffs and on mountains

and are intimate with water sprites,

I thought a long time about eagles

but confused them, I think, with flies.

15 марта 1939

Poems by Jan Saturnovsky ( 1913 - 1982)

translated by Alex Cigale

Kha and Veh

Kharms

and Vvedensky.

Easter.

The forest resurrects.

Rust-colored scum—

even it again rises.

But these two

will never wake again.

-- July 4, 1967

I am a small man.

I write small poems.

I want to write one thing

and another emerges.

The poem realizes itself.

The poem itself urges.

-- Jan. 26, 1969

As long as intellectual labor

provides aesthetic satisfaction

let us consider this: what if we turn

our attention to the sphere of conscience?

-- Feb 11, 1971

In perfect pitch the outdoor brass orchestra,

the horns in pace with the concert master,

the sound quality ascending to the stars,

violins on key - like on his web the spider;

and swooning couples stride along the street

(as it was written, two of every monster.)

-- Yalta, Apr. 30, 1974

Above all else the gall to know this is poetry.

*permission generously granted by Ricardo and Isabel Nirenberg, editors with http://www.albany.edu/offcourse/issue41/cigale_translations5.html

*Please Note: our new address is www.betterthanstarbucks.org

Better Than Starbucks!

Translations

with S. Ye Laird