[New-Poetry] Paolo Ruffilli and Ezra

Fri May 1 16:56:41 EDT 2009

I always wanted to teach a course on Poets Who Were National Heroes. I'd 
have included Burns, Neruda, probably Yevtushenko, Havel and Senghor.

jforjames at aol.com wrote:
> 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 <mailto: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
>     <mailto: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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>
>
>         -- 
>         Tad Richards
>         Read my NY Writing Careers Examiner column today!
>         http://www.examiner.com/x-2862-NY-Writing-Careers-Examiner
>
>         http://www.opus40.org/tadrichards/
>         http://opusforty.blogspot.com/
>
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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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-- 
Tad Richards
Read my NY Writing Careers Examiner column today!
http://www.examiner.com/x-2862-NY-Writing-Careers-Examiner

http://www.opus40.org/tadrichards/
http://opusforty.blogspot.com/