TEXTS IN TRANSLATION

Upper School Literature | Jason Stumpf Walnut Hill School for the Arts Spring 2012

Contents

INTRODUCTION

ELIZABETH BISHOP IN TRANSLATION

Behind Stowe Insomnia Little Exercise One Art

FOUR MODERN POEMS IN TRANSLATION

Pierre Reverdy: Acrobats (French) Homero Aridjis: A Poem of Love (Spanish) Dong Han: You Have Seen the Sea (Chinese) Yoon Zelim: Its Snowing In the Subway (Korean)

Introduction Students in Upper School Literature collaborated with one another and with faculty from various departments to translate poems by Elizabeth Bishop into French, Spanish, Korean, and Chinese. They also translated contemporary poems from those languages into English. In order to become familiar with each poem they translated, students collaboratively wrote descriptions of the poems using Google Docs. The emphasis throughout was on engaging in the processes of collaboration and creation. Students were asked to think like writers with one another. Thanks to the support of the Walnut Hill faculty members who mentored student translation groups: Raymonde Arseneau, Monica Lee, Cathy Yun. Thanks also to Nick Admussen of Princeton University for his insights into contemporary Chinese poetry.

Behind Stowe I heard an elf go whistling by, A whistle sleek as moonlit grass, That drew me like a silver string To where the dusty, pale moths fly, And make a magic as they pass; And there I heard a cricket sing. His singing echoed through and through The dark under a windy tree Where glinted little insects wings. His singing split the sky in two. The halves fell either side of me, And I stood straight, bright with moon-rings.

Elizabeth Bishop

Detras de Stowe Yo o un duende ir silbando, Un silbido pulcro como hierba iluminada por la luna, Que me atrajo como una cadena de plata A donde las polillas polvorientas y plidas vuelan, Y hacen una magia mientras pasan; Y all o un grillo cantando. Su canto resonaba continua La oscuridad bajo un rbol ventoso Dnde las alas pequeas de insectos destellaban. Su canto parti el cielo en dos. Las mitades cayeron a ambos lados de m, Y yo estuve recto, brillante con anillos lunares.

Translated into Spanish by Gabriel Berger, Rebecca Grover, Seowon Kim, and Michelle Klevsky

Insomnia The moon in the bureau mirror looks out a million miles (and perhaps with pride, at herself, but she never, never smiles) far and away beyond sleep, or perhaps she's a daytime sleeper. By the Universe deserted, she'd tell it to go to hell, and she'd find a body of water, or a mirror, on which to dwell. So wrap up care in a cobweb and drop it down the well into that world inverted where left is always right, where the shadows are really the body, where we stay awake all night, where the heavens are shallow as the sea is now deep, and you love me.

Elizabeth Bishop

 ( ,

Translated into Chinese by Hao Li, John Moriarty, Lane Shi, and Claire Song

Little Exercise Think of the storm roaming the sky uneasily like a dog looking for a place to sleep in, listen to it growling. Think how they must look now, the mangrove keys lying out there unresponsive to the lightning in dark, coarse-fibred families, where occasionally a heron may undo his head, shake up his feathers, make an uncertain comment when the surrounding water shines. Think of the boulevard and the little palm trees all stuck in rows, suddenly revealed as fistfuls of limp fish-skeletons. It is raining there. The boulevard and its broken sidewalks with weeds in every crack, are relieved to be wet, the sea to be freshened. Now the storm goes away again in a series of small, badly lit battle-scenes, each in "Another part of the field." Think of someone sleeping in the bottom of a row-boat tied to a mangrove root or the pile of a bridge; think of him as uninjured, barely disturbed.

Elizabeth Bishop

Petit Exercice Pense de la tempte errant dans le ciel mal laise comme un chien recherche pour une place pour dormir, coute le grogner. Pense comment ils doivent regarder maintenant, les mangliers couch l bas non rceptif la foudre dans la sombre, fibre-grossier famille, o le hron peut-tre dfaire sa tte, secoue ses plumes, faire un commentaire incertain quand l'entoure leau brille. Pense au boulevard et des petits palmiers tous ont enfonc dans les lignes, tout a coup rvl comme poignes les squelettes des poissons boitement. Il pleut l. Le boulevard et son trottoir cass avec les mauvaises herbes dans tous les fissures sont soulags tre tremps, la mer rafrachisse. Maintenant la tempte sen va encore en sries de la petite, scne bataille qui a t allum mauvaise, chaque dans lautre partie du terrain. Pense de quelqu'un dormir dans le fond de la barque qui a attach racine du paltuvier ou de tas de point; pense de lui comme pas bless, peu perturb.

Translated into French by Sophia Anderson, Caroline Bishop, and Jamie Kim

One Art The art of losing isnt hard to master; so many things seem filled with the intent to be lost that their loss is no disaster. Lose something every day. Accept the fluster of lost door keys, the hour badly spent. The art of losing isnt hard to master. Then practice losing farther, losing faster: places, and names, and where it was you meant to travel. None of these will bring disaster. I lost my mothers watch. And look! my last, or next-to-last, of three loved houses went. The art of losing isnt hard to master. I lost two cities, lovely ones. And, vaster, some realms I owned, two rivers, a continent. I miss them, but it wasnt a disaster. Even losing you (the joking voice, a gesture I love) I shant have lied. Its evident the art of losings not too hard to master though it may look like (Write it!) like disaster.

Elizabeth Bishop

 . . . . . , . . . . ! , . . , . . , . , . ( , ) . (!) .

Translated into Korean by Min Kyong Baek, Chayapong Charuvastr, Gergana Haralampieva, Soo Hyo Kim, and Hyo Bin Yang

Saltimbanques Au milieu de cet attroupement il y a avec un enfant qui danse un homme qui soulve des poids. Ses bras tatous de bleu prennent le ciel tmoin de leur force inutile. Lenfant danse, lger, dans un maillot trop grand; plus lger que les boules o il se tient en quilibre. Et quand il tend son escarcelle, personne ne donne. Personne ne donne de peur de la remplir dun poids trop lourd. Il est si maigre.

Pierre Reverdy

Acrobats In the middle of the gathering there is a child who dances a man who lifts heavy weights. His blue tattooed arms take the sky as a testimony to their useless strength. The child dances, lightly, in a shirt that is too big; he lightly balances on the balls. And when he holds out his bag, nobody gives. Nobody gives for the fear of making it too heavy. He is so small.

Translated from French by Sophia Anderson, Caroline Bishop, and Jamie Kim

Yoon Zelim

Its Snowing In the Subway When the subway goes up to go across the river the lady who has been silent pokes her acquaintance and says Its snowing The old man sitting nearby shakes his grandson who has been sitting with his eyes half closed and points outside the window with his fingerless hand Its snowing A depressed looking couple face each other and say Its snowing A girl with red hair who is reading a comic book takes her cell phone out Its snowing Its snowing on the Han River Snowing in the subway A subway going up to the surface is a gift.

Translated from Korean by Min Kyong Baek, Chayapong Charuvastr, Gergana Haralampieva, Soo Hyo Kim, and Hyo Bin Yang

Una Poema de Amor Cuando hable con el silencio cuando slo tenga una cadena de domingos grises para darte cuando slo tenga un lecho vaco para compartir contigo un deseo que no se satisface ya con los cuerpos de este mundo cuando ya no me basten las palabras del castellano para decirte lo que estoy mirando cuando est mudo de voz de ojos y de movimiento cuando haya arrojado lejos de m el miedo a morir de cualquier muerte cuando ya no tenga tiempo para ser yo ni ganas de ser aquel que nunca he sido cuando slo tenga la eternidad para ofrecerte una eternidad de voces y de olvido una eternidad en la que ya no podr verte ni tocarte ni encelarte ni matarte cuando a m mismo ya no me responda y no tenga da ni cuerpo entonces ser tuyo entonces te amar para siempre

Homero Aridjis

A Poem of Love When I speak with silence when I only have a chain of grey Sundays to give you when I only have an empty bed to share with you a desire that no longer satisfies itself with the bodies of the world when castilian words no longer satisfy me to tell you that I am looking when I am mute of voice sight and movement when boldness is far away from me the fear of dying any death when I no longer have time to be myself nor the desire to be someone I have never been when alone I have the eternity to offer you an eternity of voices and oblivion an eternity in which I no longer will be able to see nor touch nor kill you. when I no longer respond to myself the same and dont have day or body then I will be yours then I will love you always Translated from Spanish by Gabriel Berger, Rebecca Grover, Seowon Kim, and Michelle Klevsky

Dong Han

You Have Seen the Sea You have seen the sea You have imagined The sea You have imagined the sea and then youve seen it This is it You have seen the sea and also imagined it But you are not A sailor This is it You have imagined the sea you have seen the sea maybe you also like the sea This is the most of it You have seen the sea you have also imagined the sea You are not willing to be drowned by the sea This is it All people are like this

Translated from Chinese by by Hao Li, John Moriarty, Lane Shi, and Claire Song