meme

[ashcanprobably]

LJ Interests meme results

1. caseation:
   If I'm not mistaken, this is the process by which a thing is converted into cheese. When I first read it, I thought of the cheese one relates to flesh, the sagging, the wrinkly dimples and creases, basically the wasteland left behind when one loses a lot of weight, regains it, and loses it again. Words like

Comments

[ashcanprobably]

I exceeded the prior comment space, but I wanted to quickly touch upon the work of Blake in Spanish. I just want to say that that Blake comes off as mystical or Gothic to a greater degree, and his poetry is far more ornate and elaborate in Spanish. What's lost in some of the rhymes is made up by the arcane quality of the words and the illustrious beauty of the meaning. I don't know, phrases that feature words that are very close to their Latin origins just add a lot of dignity to expressions, in my opinion. For example, when I saw the quote in the prologue concerning the cut worm, I couldn't immediately trace it back to the source, I couldn't recognize it even though I was familiar with the original line. It went el gusano partido en dos perdona el arado. Note the length and the soft reverberation of o's. It stresses the idea that the worm was not only cut, but it was halved. It's just beautiful, and let me say that I garnered more meaning from the Spanish than the original; you accept the fact that the worm, as a naturally ignorant entity, accepts suffering and pain as a regular part of life and must concede forgiveness in the face of a greater scheme. But, in Spanish! It reminded me of Environmental Science class in high school where we'd make these diurnal ponds in jars with brine shrimp, amphipods, copepods, detritis, and flatworms. We would cut these flatworms in half and, if done correctly, each piece would become a brand new flatworm.

[one_earth_heart]

Thanks for the thorough response, Luis. Very helpful. Your comparative analysis of Hurley was great. I've done a little translation work myself, of Chinese poetry, so I'm sensitized to the basic folly of trusting any one translation to convey the original sense. Everything is filtered through the relative awareness and taste of the translator. IMHO, very few people have the necessary aptitude to translate poetry; certainly far less than actually attempt it. But I guess there's some virtue in even a bad attempt, perhaps giving someone else the initiative to do better -- and providing a comparative template for mistakes to avoid. Then again, I think of a lecture I saw Charles Simic give on poetry translation a couple years ago. The summation was unforgettable: "Poetry is that which cannot be translated; and yet, it must be translated." Which he followed with the qualification: "I'm not sure that God exists, but I'm certain there's a place in hell for bad translators." He's a funny guy. Anyway, I'll look into the Borges translations, and hopefully be able to read the original someday. After going to Peru, Spanish is definately something that I want to learn, in the least, to give me some options if shit really hits the fan here. But really, I want to read Neruda, Lorca and Paz in their original sound.

Also, this comment on Blake in Spanish was quite interesting. Thanks for sharing that. I'm putting you on my friends list. Peace.