Preface
Published on September 13, 2009
was night when I saw the tweet my friend Bud . I took this poem Li-Young Lee, one of those inexplicable reasons, I started to play in English in the head while reading. The translation you posted is the first draft. I thought he was going to edit and post later. But no. So decide to publish the original date and this note.
Original Pillow
by Li-Young Lee
There's nothing I can't find under there.
voices in the trees, the missing pages
of the sea.
Everything but sleep.
And night is a river bridging
the speaking and the listening banks,
a fortress, undefended and inviolate.
There's nothing that won't fit under it:
fountains clogged with mud and leaves,
the houses of my childhood.
And night begins when my mother's fingers
let go of the thread
they've been tying and untying
to touch toward our fraying story's hem.
Night is the shadow of my father's hands
setting the clock for resurrection.
Or is it the clock unraveled, the numbers flown?
That hasn't found home there:
discarded wings, lost shoes, a broken alphabet.
Everything but sleep. And Begins night
with the first beheading
of the jasmine, ITS captive
fragrance at last rid of burial clothes.
My English version
Pillow by Li-Young Lee
There is nothing you can not find there.
The voices in the trees, the missing pages from the sea.
Everything exept the dream itself.
And the night is a river
lying between the banks of speaking and listening,
indefensible and inviolable fortress.
There is nothing that does not fit there:
sources covered with leaves and mud houses
my childhood.
And the night begins when the fingers of my mother
loose thread that unwinds
ball and come to touch the fragile fabric of our history.
Night is the shadow of my father's hands
putting the clock for resurrection.
Or perhaps the clock is frayed and the numbers were deleted?
There is nothing that has not found home there:
discarded wings, lost shoes, an alphabet stammered.
Everything exept sleep.
And the night begins
the first beheading
of jasmine fragrance
captive who escaped, at last, the shrouds.
Translator's note (or apology for the betrayal of translating). I note some changes
order of words over the original. I wonder how the meaning might be affected:
leaves and mud rather than, mud and leaves
rid , which would loose, the result of the action. I translate in the active voice, with an action verb.
escaped
hem, I found it difficult to translate
plot, placed with a history
hem refers to the different patterns that can take a ball
About the Author-Li-Young Lee
this link that what characterizes his poetry is a certain humility, a desire to allow the sublime into the camp and take over everything. A devotion to language, a belief in its holiness.
0 comments:
Post a Comment