Swans Commentary » swans.com November 3, 2008  

 

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by Guido Monte & Alison Phipps

 

Multilingual Poetry

 

 

a scuola n.2 (at school n.2) © 2007 Simone Di Trapani

 

 

(Swans - November 3, 2008)  

Bhoh, give ear!

But I do not
want you to listen.

Ecoute!

This is
Not enough.

What must I do
To be heard?

Horch! Hark!
The old word has it.

If we harken
we hear
Angels sing.

Dagur síungur líður, Já, endalausir og birtan,
Reykur í augum svíður The day flows, ever-young endless
and the brightness smoke stings the eyes
but nous portons une fatigue infinie
too much our hard work

"Ach, ich bin
des Treibens müde"

Yet rest is
waiting,
just around the corner
from our greed,

smoothing out our
creased understanding.

It is where
"aus Hören."

við spilum endalaust we play endlessly

somewhere near the spirit ladder
close by that great
tree which rises when
we hear. "Ein hoher Baum im Ohr."

"Ar an mbealach abhaile."

nous sommes si loin de tout
we are so far away from everything

so weit, so weit.
Arbeit.
So weit

svasti vale adieu farewell
beannachd leat.

 

 

The authors thank Gilles d'Aymery for the English translation of Ungaretti's last line ("nous sommes si loin de tout").

Bayta is old Syriac-Aramaic language, Bhoh and Svasti are Sanskrit.

Between the lines of A. Phipps, verses from Egmont (Goethe), Sonnetten an Orpheus (Rilke), An Damsha (Denvir).

Alison Phipps is Professor of Languages and Intercultural Studies at the University of Glasgow.

Picture: a scuola n.2 (at school n.2), by Simone Di Trapani (2007).

 

 

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About the Author

Guido Monte on Swans (with bio). Also, please check Guido's entry on Wikipedia.

 

Legalese

Please, feel free to insert a link to this work on your Web site or to disseminate its URL on your favorite lists, quoting the first paragraph or providing a summary. However, please DO NOT steal, scavenge, or repost this work on the Web or any electronic media. Inlining, mirroring, and framing are expressly prohibited. Pulp re-publishing is welcome -- please contact the publisher. This material is copyrighted, © Guido Monte 2008. All rights reserved.

 

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