Guy Conner's Blog, page 3

Interpreting Borges

For this translation of Borges, I decided to start with the fact that the original poem (Un Ciego) is a classical Shakespearian sonnet.  The decision to respect the form of the original poem when translating leads to a new poem that, while preserving the essential themes and sense of the original, adds and subtracts details for the sake of the form.  I call this kind of translating  “interpreting” to emphasize that a poem arises from the process that is both the original poem and a new poem i...

A little taste of Borges

For a change of pace, how about a little Borges?

The Nightmare
Jorge Luis Borges
(trans. Guy Conner)

I dream of an ancient king,
His crown of iron, his look of death,
There are no faces like that nowadays,
You sense his firm blade will obey him, loyal, like a dog

I do not from where he comes – Northumbria or Norway;
I only know that he comes to us from the North,
Close cut red whiskers everywhere;
Never have I seen the like;
Such empty eyes.

From what strange looking-glass,
From what wild sea...

More Garcia Lorca

I chose Garcia Lorca for my first Spanish translation attempts, because of the many short poems in his oeuvre.  Short poems, I thought, wouldn’t take long to translate and that would give me a sense of accomplishment.    In fact, reading the poem and understanding the words has not been the problem,  the difficulty has been to achieve a coherent poem in English without losing the flavor of Gracia Lorca’s exotic style. Here’s my latest attempt:

Echo

The flower of dawn is open…
Do you remember...

Garcia Lorca

I had expected to return to this blog with a number of essays on politics, but so far, I’m having trouble finishing the ones I have started.  Stay tuned.

Meanwhile, I am trying my hand at translation again, this time of Spanish poetry.  I began by reading through the Complete Works of Federico Garcia Lorca, whom I admired greatly when I first read him in college (in English).   It quickly became clear that, in order to understand many of the poems, I need to brush up on the history of his tim...

Fairness in Media

I am old enough to remember when media coverage of politics – TV and radio only in those days – was governed by the FCC’s fairness doctrine. The fairness doctrine said, essentially, that if you wanted to report on an election, all sides, and all candidates, needed to be given equal time.

This was both useful, and boring. It was useful because it meant that the public at large could hear underfunded candidates, and get to know them. It was boring because vanity candidates and single-issue cand...

Acceptance

It was only to be expected, I guess. When I was young, I felt affronted by the prospect of death; as I age, death seems , while still frightening, increasingly natural.

Death’s Blue-Eyed Boy

My father was certain
What would happen.”Like snuffing out a candle,” he’d say.
“Like turning out all the lights in the world at once.”

I have a different take on death:
I think I’ll pass
Into an alternate universe
Where I’ll get another chance
To do it right.

The post Acceptance appeared first on Guy Co...

Acting Locally

From time to time, people who know how interested in politics I am ask me if I watch the Presidential debates. I always reply: “No, I’m not interested,” and try to change the subject.

But why don’t I want to watch? There’s plenty of drama. Donald Trump talks about whatever comes into his head, with out a trace of a normal person’s filter. He get’s the most attention, but there’s lot’s more – Ted Cruz, smarmy and smug, but obviously intelligent. There’s Ben Carson, who seems to be running in o...

Reality Show Politics

Today, a friend asked me why I never seem to want to talk about national politics. Anyone who knows me is aware of my willingness to discuss politics in general, and state and local politics in particular. So why do I avoid talking about national politics?

I thought about it for a while, and replied that national politics didn’t feel like real politics to me — it was more like watching a reality show. The kind of politics I like is about people; about understanding their needs and about repre...

The Cage

The following verse is from 1969. As is the case with many of the pieces I wrote at that time, I have no memory of composing it. It seemed to spring, fully-written, into my mind. I think is is a reflection of my state of mind at that time, which was that the loneliness I felt was a hopeless condition.

The Cage

The floor is made of matted straw —
Enough to make his blisters raw,
Enough to make a catch-as-can
Pallet for a weary man.
At each new dimming of the light,
Begins a wakeful-watching n...

Another Short Poem

To wait,
And not to turn
Away when trouble strikes;
To stay, when others beckon you,
Is Love.

The post Another Short Poem appeared first on Guy Conner.