Poetry Circle

[Talking Bird]

The other way to use words to communicate.
It's said that poetry is the part that can't be translated.
Can there be poetry in an international café?

[Judy Skolnick]

Why not, in Washington DC we have poetry cafes where the poets read to the customers. Free, anyone can participate, coffeehouse style of the 60's

[Talking Bird]

Oh! Thanks for the reminder, Chantal. I thought today was Wednesday. If you hadn't spoken, I would have missed the Thursday night music coffeehouse.

[Guido Vermeulen]

Since a few months I became a participant in a center for studies of Zarathustra in Brussels. The center is a meeting point for many Iranians (Zarathustra was the belief system in Iran before Islam took over, see also Nietzche's book). The center is run by a woman from Norway and a man from Iran. They organize monthly poetry readings around themes we all agree on. Every member is a participant. You read your own poems on those themes and poems you like from other authors. The poems are read in the original languages (so it's a mixture of English, Swedish, Dutch, French, Iranian and so on). A rough translation is sometimes given in French, so most people can follow what it is about.
In French they say "une traduction est une trahison" (a translation is a treason). I tend to agree with that statement. I prefer to hear the original sounds and languages and don't bother too much about "what does it mean?". I don't like to explain poems neither.

[Rani Solhaug]

Guido, My professor just enlightened us on the Zarathustra belief of the humanistic way of life, a truely facinating subject. I am a student at St.Cloud State University in Minnesota and I am currently taking an Iraninan Cinema class. We currently are one of the very few places to even view some of these films. I would be very greatful if you were to keep me in your loop and possibly update or send me anything of interest. Iranian cinema has been a major influence for me and my fellow students here in Minnesota, it is some of the most enlightening, heartbreaking and joyous cinemas to grace this planet.

[Talking Bird]

Agreed! Among my favorite films ever are Majid Majidi's Baran and Children of Heaven, Bahman Ghobadi's Turtles Can Fly and Marooned in Iraq, and Mohsen Makhmalbaf's Kandahar. I also liked Makhmalbaf's Blackboards, Gabbeh, and The Cyclist, Abbas Kiarostami's The Wind Will Carry Us and Close-Up, and Manijeh Hekmat's Women's Prison.

[Rani Solhaug]

Talking Bird, I have to admit that Samira Makhmalbaf's The Apple has been one of my favorite films to date.

Iranian cinema is truely visual poetry.

[yves maraux]

the best iranian movie is an armenian one
La source - the spring : Ovenassian

but more cute , let's talk of the poet's filmography , the poet as social personnage in movies , like in Paradjanov's movies . What a great view !

[Rod Summers / VEC]

I would say 'the translation of a poem is rarely a poem.' I recently had a poem translated into Icelandic by a close friend and language expert and was surprised at the limitations, for example the words for 'say' and 'tell' are the same. I will post the both versions here if you are interested. I am currently writing a play which will be translated into Icelandic and am considering the words I use accordingly.

[Talking Bird]

Yes, Rod, I'd be very interested in seeing the two versions. I know exactly what you mean about the problem of translating words that have two meanings into a language which doesn't have a word that combines those same two meanings. It's the greatest weakness of using Babelfish to translate. Babelfish chooses one of the meanings and always provides a translation for that meaning only. So sometimes the translation makes no sense at all, and there's no way the speaker of the target language can see what's wrong. I find that it's necessary to translate the translation back into English to see whether it was successful.

[Rod Summers / VEC]

OK here is the original English poem ( printed on the cover of one of my CDs of 80 minutes of the sound a rushing mountain river)

The river is short
Its bed is rocky
The river runs fast
The water is turbulent, brilliant
And drinkable clean.
A little less cold than ice.

This is an Icelandic river
I hear voices calling to me
I can't quite make out what they say.
What would a river want to tell me?

and the Icelandic translation by Magnús Pálsson:

Áin er stutt
farvegurinn gryttur
hún streymir hratt
straumurinn striður og bjartur
tær til drykkjar
mærri jafnköld og is

Þetta er íslensk á
ég heyri raddir kalla á mig
greini ekki alveg hvað þær segja
hvað skyldi á vilja segja mér?


actually, when I read it out loud again now, some 4 years after it was written, the Icelandic version sounds really well!

best greetings

rod

attached a photo of the river Á

[Donald Boyd]

Which one is Rod?
Is he short or is he tall?
On the left
or on the right?
Bushy beard
or not at all?
Where is our icy river,
In our minds eye/
Behind the wall?

[Renée Wagemans]

Hi Guido, Gian Paolo Guerini experimented with translations of poetry too.

http://www.gianpaologuerini.it/14_lividi/postview/