[New-Poetry] Paolo Ruffilli and Ezra

Fri May 1 11:40:01 EDT 2009

I'm always impressed by those who translate. Congrats, Anny. 

I?see a Leopold Senghor poem is translated below your group.
I just picked up a Collected Poems of Senghor's in a used bookstore
in Waterville ME where I spent more than I intended last Saturday.
I'll have to see if I can find that?same Senghor?poem in my book and 
compare it to the version put up on Ezra.

I can't call it translating but a process I've gone thru in the past is
to take 3 previously translated versions (or?more versions, if available), 
along with the poem in its original language, and then using three?versions 
and the orginal, I put together (or build)?a fourth version selecting bits and
pieces of the three, while consulting the original for guidance on?structure,
sound and sense (as much I can make out, that is), and often putting
in my own words and phrases along the way,?those elements I believe, 
based on my judgment and scant evidence I've gleaned from the original, 
that?will make this new or?'amalgamated translation' the better?poem.

This older poem is not about translating per se, but it's related:

In Another Language

The poem I'll read for you
is in a language not our own,
you will hear and be lost
in an alien land not unlike love itself
where those we ask for directions
can only shrug and point to town.
There is nothing to know or follow,
though when I mouth these words
you may be moved no less for lack of meaning,
something about a river, the shadow
of a sparrow upon the wind, or fish
just under the surface. Don't try
to understand any more than you would ponder
a bowl of soup, for it doesn't matter
if these are words of a recipe or a psalm.
The tongues cut from an old pair of shoes,
a shell's ear buried in sand,
all the more beautiful for what's left unsaid
or that we are unable to say aloud
in the vocabulary of lips, grammar
of our arms. A child singing beneath a willow
like rain or words under wings of geese
rising off the lake, hear this
as you would hear water running over stones,
with as few words as you can make out,
like hand, like two, like sleep.
-

Finnegan

-----Original Message-----
From: Anny Ballardini <anny.ballardini at gmail.com>
Sent: Thu, 30 Apr 2009 4:37 pm
Subject: Re: [New-Poetry] Paolo Ruffilli and Ezra

Thank you! Yes, that is quite a writeup!

On Thu, Apr 30, 2009 at 10:27 PM, Michael Snider <mandolin at mikesnider.org> wrote:

Quite a writeup they gave you Anny - you deserve it!

On Thu, Apr 30, 2009 at 4:06 PM, TheOldMole <Opus40-01 at opus40.org> wrote:

Very cool.

Anny Ballardini wrote:

And Peter Thompson has made my day! I am the featured translator on /Ezra: an online journal of translations/
http://ezratranslation.com/Spring_2009.html

Thank you to Peter Thompson for his hospitality and to Paolo Ruffilli for most interesting poetry.

Best wishes, Anny

-- 
Anny Ballardini
http://annyballardini.blogspot.com/
http://www.fieralingue.it/modules.php?name=poetshome
http://www.lulu.com/content/5806078
http://www.moriapoetry.com/ebooks.html
I Tell You: One must still have chaos in one to give birth to a dancing star!

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-- 
Anny Ballardini
http://annyballardini.blogspot.com/
http://www.fieralingue.it/modules.php?name=poetshome
http://www.lulu.com/content/5806078
http://www.moriapoetry.com/ebooks.html
I Tell You: One must still have chaos in one to give birth to a dancing star! 

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