Read Poets Translate Poets: A Hudson Review Anthology Online
Authors: Paula Deitz
Poets Translate Poets: A Hudson Review Anthology (32 page)
And if there is aught I know to say or do,
I merit no praise from it,
For in her is all Good; and through
Her have I wit and knowledge of fulfi lment;
Hence I am both a poet and happy,
And all I make which has in it any fi neness
Pe i r e V i da l
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I have from the rich delight of her fi ne body
Even as my heart longs for her in straightness.
Paul Blackburn, 1952
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P r ov e n ç a l
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Q u e c h u a
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A non ymous Poets
(ca. Late Eighteenth Century, Early Nineteenth Century)
Prayer
O you
from whom it came
comes
you
lord of what is
whether you’re
a
man
whether you’re
a
woman
lord
of what’s born
whatever you are
lord of the sight beyond
where are you
you above at this moment
you below at this moment
presence
throne sceptre
shining around them
hear
me
maybe the sky is your fl oor
maybe the sea is your roof
maker of above and below
A non y mou s P oet s
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as we are you made us
lord above lords
my eyes are weak
with longing to see you
only with longing
to know you
make it be
that I see you
make it be
that I know you
make it be
that I hold you in my thought
make it be
that you are clear in my mind
look at me
for you know me
sun and moon
day and night
spring and winter
you set them in order
you
from whom it came
comes
all of them run
the course you marked out for them
all of them reach
the goal you set for them
wherever you wanted it
you bearing
the king’s scepter
288
Qu e c h ua
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hear me
choose me
do not let me grow tired
do not let me die
Prayer
You
from whom the universe came
from whom the universe came
you
who made it everything
burn alone
alone only you
in the night that is my heart
when dawn comes let it show me
the joy of your eyes
when the wind
comes let it warm me with
your breath
let your hand that gives
be held out forever
and what you want forever
be the only
fl ower
Prayer
Come closer truth from above us
truth from below us
A non y mou s P oet s
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who made the form of the world
you
who let it all exist
who alone made man
ten times with eyes full of darkness
I must worship you
saying
Brightness
stretched out before you
look at me
lord
notice
me
and your rivers your waterfalls
your
birds
give me your
life
all you can
help me to call
with your voices
even now we taste
the joy of your will
and we remember it all
we are happy
even so we are fi lled
as we go away
as we go
Herder’s Song
I wish for a llama
290
Qu e c h ua
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with a gold coat
like the sun’s
strong as love
soft as the cloud dissolving
at
daybreak
from its hair I’d make
a knotted cord
the knots counting
the moons going
the
fl owers dying
“Joy in your mouth”
Joy in your mouth
joy on your tongue
all
day
and tonight
you will fast
and later you will sing like a lark
then it may be that in our joy
in the smiling upon us
from some place in the world
the one who made us
the lord of the powers
will hear you
Ho
he will say to you
and wherever you are
you will live
A non y mou s P oet s
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forever
with no other lord
you will be
“I’m bringing up a fl y”
I’m bringing up a fl y
with golden wings
bringing up a fl y
with eyes burning
it carries death
in its eyes of fi re
carries death
in its golden hair
in its gorgeous wings
in a green bottle
I’m bringing it up
nobody
knows
if it drinks
nobody
knows
if it eats
at night it goes wandering
like a star
wounding to death
with red rays
from its eyes of fi re
it carries love
in its eyes of fi re
fl ashes in the night
its
blood
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Qu e c h ua
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the love it bears in its breast
insect of night
fl y bearing death
in a green bottle
I’m bringing it up
I love it
that
much
but nobody
no
nobody knows
if I give it to drink
nobody knows if I feed it
“My mother brought me to life”
My mother brought me to life
ay
in a rain cloud
ay
like rain to weep
ay
like rain to go around
ay
passing from door to door
ay
like a feather in the air
ay
“When you fi nd you’re alone on the island in the river”
When you fi nd you’re alone on the island in the river
your father won’t be there
A non y mou s P oet s
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to call you
aloo
my
daughter
your mother won’t be able
to reach you
aloo
my
daughter
only the royal duck will stay near you
with the rain in its eyes
with tears of blood
with the rain in its eyes
tears of blood
and even the royal duck will leave you
when the waves of the river
boil
when the waves
race on the river
but then I’ll go and stay near you
singing
I’ll steal her young heart
on the island
her young heart
in the storm
W. S. Merwin, 1971
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Qu e c h ua
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R o m a n e s c o
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G. G. Belli
(1791–1863)
Th
e Creation of the World
Th
e year that Jesus baked the world, he found
Th
e dough was there already that he kneaded;
Wanting to make it big and green and round,
He traced a watermelon and proceeded.
He made a sun, a moon, a globe—just one of each,
Th
ough he made a pile of stars out of the dough:
He set birds over beasts, beasts above fi sh:
He planted the plants, then said, “Th
at’s it—I’m through.”
Forgot to tell you that he made a person,
A man—and then a woman, Eve and Adam,
And this apple that he put some sort of curse on.
And he yelled, by God, as loud as he knew how,
Soon as he saw that they had disobeyed him,
“Folks of the future, you are fucked up now!”
Th
e Life of Man
Nine months in the stench: and then in swaddling bound,
Among the kisses, the milksops, and the bawling;
Th
en strapped into a basket, hauled around
With a stiff neck brace to keep the head from falling.
Th
en there begin the torments of the school,
Th
e ABCs, the cold, the cane’s hard knocks,
Measles, the potty seat, the squeezed-out stool,
A touch of scarlet fever, chickenpox.
Th
en hunger comes, and weariness, a trade,
Th
e rent, the jailhouse, and the government,
Th
e hospitals, the debts, the getting laid;
G. G. Be l l i
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Th
e scorching summer and the winter’s snow . . .
Th
en, blessèd be God’s name, when life is spent,
Comes death to fi nish it with hell below.
Th
e Worldwide Flood
God says to Noah, “Listen, Patriarch,
You and your sons fetch hatchets, I’ll provide
Th
e blueprints and you build for me an ark
To my design: this high, this long, this wide.
“Th
en make a roof for it [So says the Lord],
“Just like the boat at Porto de Ripetta;
And when you’ve got her yare as you can get ’er,
Take beasts from everywhere and get on board!
“Th
e worldwide fl ood that’s coming, kid you not,
Will make those fountains out at Tivoli
Look like an overfl owing chamber pot.
“You’ll know that it’s the right time to abandon
Ship, when you see a rainbow in the sky;
Just screw the mud and sow the site you land on!”
Free Trade
Well? I’m a whore! Behind my little gate
I show myself, I do, and sell my hide.
I take it in the narrow and the wide.
Cat got your tongue? Isn’t my life great?
Once, Mister Dickbrain, I was pure, a maiden
Like other maidens, just as chaste as any;
Now anyone can have me who has money,
Here on a bed that everyone’s got laid in.
298
Rom a n e s c o
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You know what riles me? Not that I’m a whore,
Th
at’s well and good, and when the bed is shakin’,
No job in this whole world could please me more.
It’s high-class ladies who pretend to be
So virtuous, but, seeing what I rake in
By whoring, steal my customers from me!
A Dog’s Life
You call this
idleness
, you idiots?
You say the Pope does
nothing
?
Nothing
, eh?
May you be damned for belittling the way
He labors through the grueling days and nights.
Who speaks to God Almighty in his chapel?
Who pardons whoreson rogues for their off enses?
Who sends out barrels of indulgences?
Who blesses, from his coach-and-four, the people?
Who counts the little coins up of his pelf?
Who helps him with the cardinals he invests?
Who else may levy taxes but himself?
And what of the fatigue that must set in
From tearing up petitions and requests
And tossing all the scraps into the bin?
Th
e Popess Joan
A woman right enough, who fi rst of all
Exchanged her apron for a soldier’s billet,
And then became a priest and then a prelate,
A bishop then, at last a cardinal.
And when the ruling pope, a manly one,
Took ill (from poisoning, some say) and died,
G. G. Be l l i
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She was made pope herself and given a ride
To Saint John Lateran on the papal throne.
To make our little comedy complete,
She unexpectedly goes into labor
And drops a baby boy right on the seat.
Since then they’ve used a seat with a hole to assess
