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Saturday, June 4th, 2011
For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time [are] not worthy [to be compared] with the glory which shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God. For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected [the same] in hope, Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. -- The letter of St. Paul to the Romans
Chapter â…§: 18-22
King James version
For a long time I have been wondering how a translation of JoachÃn Pasos' Battle-song: The War of Things might best preserve the voice of the poet. Throughout the poem he is addressing vosotros, the explicitly familiar, explicitly plural second person which does not exist in English. Turns out the key is the epigraph to the poem.For an epigraph, Pasos quotes from the Vulgate version of the above verses of Romans; but he prefaces the quotation with "Fratres:" -- "Brethren:", which is not part of these verses. Paul's letter is addressed to his brethren the Roman Christians, so this insertion makes good sense. And if you read Pasos' poem as a continuation of Paul's address to his brethren, then the familiar second-person plural is clear from context. This morning I had what seems to me like a good idea for a non-literal translation of the poem's third stanza:
Give me a motor, a motor stronger than man's heart.
Give me a robot's brain, let me be murdered painlessly.
Give me a body, metal body without and within another metal body,
just like the leaden soldier's who never dies,
never begs oh Lord, your grace, let me not be disgraced among your works
like the soldier of mere flesh, our feeble pride,
who will offer, for your day, the light of his eyes,
who will take, for your metal, take a bullet in his chest,
who will give, for your water, give back his blood.
Who wants to be like a knife, like one no other knife can ever wound.
(With liberal borrowings from Steven F. White's more literal translation.) This poem reminds me strongly of León Ferrari's paintings of armaments. Remember that the poet is addressing his brethren: He is asking for these cybernetic enhancements not from his God but from his peers.
posted morning of June 4th, 2011: Respond
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Saturday, September first, 2012
Paul, and Silvanus, and Timotheus,
unto the church of the Thessalonians which is in God the Father and in the Lord Jesus Christ:
Grace be unto you, and peace, from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Marcus Borg of Huffington Post examines the possibilities for a new understanding of the Christian testament as an evolving document offered by a chronological reading of its books in the order that they were written, rather than the canonical order. Thanks for the link, Barbara!
posted morning of September first, 2012: Respond
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Friday, January 10th, 2014
Herewith two magnificent poems about Lot's nameless wife.
Lot's Wife
by Anna Akhmatova, translated by Richard Wilbur
The just man followed then his angel guide
Where he strode on the black highway, hulking and bright;
But a wild grief in his wife’s bosom cried,
Look back, it is not too late for a last sight
Of the red towers of your native Sodom, the square
Where once you sang, the gardens you shall mourn,
And the tall house with empty windows where
You loved your husband and your babes were born.
She turned, and looking on the bitter view
Her eyes were welded shut by mortal pain;
Into transparent salt her body grew,
And her quick feet were rooted in the plain.
Who would waste tears upon her? Is she not
The least of our losses, this unhappy wife?
Yet in my heart she will not be forgot
Who, for a single glance, gave up her life.
from
What Lot’s Wife Would Have Said (If She Wasn’t A Pillar of Salt)
By Karen Finneyfrock
Do you remember when we met
in Gomorrah? When you were still beardless,
and I would oil my hair in the lamp light before seeing
you, when we were young, and blushed with youth
like bruised fruit. Did we care then
what our neighbors did
in the dark?
...
Cover your eyes tight,
husband, until you see stars, convince
yourself you are looking at Heaven.
Because any man weak enough to hide his eyes while his neighbors
are punished for the way they love deserves a vengeful god.
I would say these things to you now, Lot,
but an ocean has dried itself on my tongue.
So instead I will stand here, while my body blows itself
grain by grain back over the Land of Canaan.
I will stand here
and I will watch you
run.
...or of course there's the Gang of Four...
posted evening of January 10th, 2014: 3 responses
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Saturday, January 25th, 2014
My translation (current draft -- there are still a couple of constructions that I'm not 100% sure about to call this "final") of Karen Finneyfrock's astonishing What Lot's Wife Would Have Said (If She Wasn’t A Pillar of Salt):
posted morning of January 25th, 2014: Respond
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Saturday, February 15th, 2014
¿Recuerdas bien cuando nos encontramos
en Gomorra? Cuando aún no tenÃas barba --
y yo engrasaba el pelo, iluminada por el farol antes de
verte; éramos jóvenes y con esa juventud nos sonrojábamos
como frutas magulladas. ¿Nos interesó entonces
lo que pasara entre los vecinos
en la oscuridad?
Mientras nos nacÃa la primera hija
al lado del rÃo Jordán, mientras
la rosada cabeza de la segunda
se esforzaba, saliendo de mi cuerpo
como promesa ¿nos preocupó
cómo usaran la lengua
los amigos?
O ¿cuáles grietas nuevas encontraran
para lamer el amor? o ¿cuál carne extraña
encontraran para empujar el placer? En llamarlo
entonces a uno sodomita,
sólo quisimos decir
vecino.
Cuando nos mandaron los ángeles correr
de la ciudad, te acompañé;
pero eses ángeles sabÃan también
que mira la mujer siempre atrás.
Déjame asà decirte, Lot,
cómo lucÃa tu ciudad en llamas
puesto que tú nunca te volviste para mirarla.
Los dedos pegajosos del azufre se arrastraban sobre la piel
de nuestros compatriotas. A pelo quemado apestaba
y a huevos rancios. Observé a los amigos sacando trozos
ardiendo de sus rostros. ¿Hay una forma
tan obscena de amar?
Cúbrete los ojos con fuerza,
hombre, hasta que veas las estrellas. Convéncete
de que miras el cielo.
Pues el hombre que es bastante débil para cerrar los ojos mientras
se castiga a los vecinos por la forma en que se aman merece a un dios
malévolo.
Todo esto te lo dirÃa, Lot,
si no se me hubiera secado océano en la lengua.
En lugar de eso me quedaré aquÃ; mi cuerpo soplará
grano a grano de regreso a la tierra de Canaán
Voy a quedarme aquÃ
y te veré
correr.
posted afternoon of February 15th, 2014: 2 responses
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Sunday, March 9th, 2014
 3 Y, ¿por qué miras la paja que está en el ojo de tu hermano,
y no echas de ver la viga que está en tu propio ojo?
4 O, ¿cómo dirás a tu hermano: Déjame sacar la paja de tu ojo,
y he aquà la viga en tu propio ojo?
5 ¡Hipócrita! Saca primero la viga de tu propio ojo,
y entonces verás bien para sacar la paja del ojo de tu hermano.
3 And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye,
but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?
4 Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye;
and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye?
5 Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye;
and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye.
posted afternoon of March 9th, 2014: 1 response
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Monday, March 17th, 2014
2 poemas con referencias biblicas --
No me parece tan necesario
Estar siempre listo
Para lo que venga;
Mejor, pienso, que se deje
Sorprender
Y hasta confundir
Por lo nuevo.
Mejor, pienso, volver,
Y otra vez volver,
En este momento señalado
Para toda cosa
Debajo del sol.
insensible
por The Modesto Kid
insensible
como las cenizas
a la llama
arde
y miro la paja en el ojo ajeno
y no atiendo la viga en el mÃo propio
ayúdame a mÃ, por favor --
me desespero
tengo viga en el ojo
lo reconozco
¿es ceniza? ¿es llama? arde.
ilumina
espérame a mà momento, por favor --
espera
a confesarme
inmediato,
instantáneo
arde.
...y uno sino:
Vuelve ahora atrás,
quien me una vez
ávidamente buscó:
me persigue,
quien iba corriendo.
posted evening of March 17th, 2014: 1 response
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Saturday, March 22nd, 2014
TÃramelapor J Osner
13 Si alguno se acuesta con varón como los que se acuestan con mujer, los dos han cometido abominación; ciertamente han de morir.
LevÃtico 20
7 Y como insistieran en preguntarle, se enderezó y les dijo: El que de
vosotros esté sin pecado sea el primero en arrojar la piedra contra ella.
San Juan 8
La piedra ya arrojada
contra ella
y ¿quién sabe,
si estarÃa sin pecado
el
tirador; si se acostaba
con varón como los que
con mujer? En todo caso
comete abominación. El templo
hecho de cristal
ya se rompe en pedazos.
posted morning of March 22nd, 2014: Respond
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Sunday, March 23rd, 2014
Vete y haz lo mimopor J Osner
26 Él le dijo: ¿Qué está escrito en la ley? ¿Cómo lees?
27 Aquél,
respondiendo, dijo: Amarás al Señor tu Dios con todo tu corazón, y con
toda tu alma, y con todas tus fuerzas, y con toda tu mente y a tu
prójimo como a ti mismo.
28 Y le dijo: Bien has respondido; haz esto, y vivirás.
San Lucas 10
véndale las heridas al prójimo. Oye
sus gritos, y responde. Haz
lo que puedes. Lo reconoce
como compañero, como
parecido ser humano
ten en común
siente la affinidad con el otro
esta chispa de conexión
se eleva
se genera
funciona para todo
cada prójimo considerando al prójimo
como amigo
posted afternoon of March 23rd, 2014: Respond
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Thursday, April 10th, 2014
Reading "Canto de guerra de las cosas" last week I was struck again by the epigraph and decided to read the 8th chapter of Romans. Here are two poems (one I started writing in Spanish and finished in English, and one I started writing in English and finished in Spanish) based on a few verses from that.
The Ways of Flesh and Spiritby J Osner
2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made
me free from the law of sin and death.
3 For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through
the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of
sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:
4 That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us,
who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
Romans 8
4 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of
death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod
and thy staff they comfort me.
Psalm 23
I will not walk forth
in the ways of the flesh
but in the ways of the Spirit. I will not
subject myself to the law of sin
and of death. For both
are of the flesh, which is not I --
though I'm living now, this moment,
in a lump of flesh. I'll walk
my pathway of the Spirit
of life in Christ Jesus, this lump
will come along for the ride.
I'm flesh which must follow
the law of sin and death --
would be no question
of walking
in any other ways
but the ways of the flesh,
for I am flesh. Will fear
no evil, for you will be with me.
And so we'll walk forth together
flesh and Spirit,
side by side
--indeed inside!--
along our separate paths
of Self and Other.
Romanos 8
por J Osner
Carne, te estoy adentro de vos
Tus sensaciones y reacciones
Son las mías. Cuando eructás
Soy yo el que me debo excusar.
Distraeme por tu hambre
Y por tu satisfacción.
Intimidame por tus anhelos;
No los voy a reconocer. Voy
A andarme conforme al Espíritu
De vida en Cristo Jesús y me retraeré
De vos y tu concepción asquerosa
Del mundo, tu valle
De la sombra del Mal
y del Muerto.
posted evening of April 10th, 2014: Respond
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