Lord Nelson: “ Meh Lover ”
Posted: August 31, 2011 Filed under: English: Trinidadian Comments Off on Lord Nelson: “ Meh Lover ”
ZP_Lord Nelson_Calypsonian_album cover from 1977
*
Meh Lover,
I want to mention in my confession to you –
Meh Lover,
I must discuss what we should and shouldn’t do…
(Oh oh oh)
Meh Lover,
A good relation is a relation based on trust.
Meh Lover,
We too jealous and suspicious, it’s outrageous and ridiculous
to see we messin’ up we mind, (Oh oh oh)
how we messin’ up we mind,
Ah tell you: NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO,
Let’s have a good good time!
Meh dahlin’, NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO,
Let’s have a good good time!!
*
Meh Lover,
I used to worry about you having a second hand –
Meh Lover,
As if to help me fulfill me duty as a man…
(Oh oh oh)
I say Meh Lover,
you know we troopin’, we really stupid – for true.
Meh Lover,
it’s so amusing, way we using and accusing, it’s so confusing
the way they messin’ up we mind (Oh oh oh), the way they
messin’ up we mind, (Oh oh oh),
Meh dahlin’, NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO,
Let’s have a good good time!!
Meh dahlin’, NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO,
Let’s have a good good time!!
*
Meh Lover,
Your love too precious and delicious to lose,
And you too vital and special to abuse…
(Oh oh oh)
Meh Lover,
what good for ram-goat is good for gander and goosie, too!
Meh Lover,
you must remember, meh daily Lover, when you out yonder,
protect meh pleasure and don’t go messin’ up me mind,
(Oh oh oh), no doh go messin’ up me mind, (Oh oh oh),
Meh dahlin’, NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO,
Let’s have a good good time!
Meh Lover, OOHOO,OOHOO,OOHOO,OOHOO,OOHOO,
Let’s have a good good time!!
_____
Lord Nelson, 81 years old in 2011, is a singer and composer from
Trinidad and Tobago, who has performed calypso (ol’ time kaiso
to modern soca) for 50 years. He recorded “Meh Lover” with bass, drums
and “proud” trumpets in 1983.
Ghazal: The Ladder of Night
Posted: August 27, 2011 Filed under: Alexander Best, English Comments Off on Ghazal: The Ladder of Night
Alexander Best
” The Ladder of Night “
.
You threw me down a well, wall’s drawn in dung – I trust you.
I’ve hung a skull, it yawns to drown the bell – I trust you.
I’m elbowing this dark that swims below…it’s lovely.
I drip with singing, one good lung, till dawn – I trust you.
& tears my ale, I’m falling underground…and dreaming.
Way up’s the grate, mid-day’s a yellow wail – I trust you.
I’m bellowing, I’ve brawn to scale our strife…in octaves.
Await, new skill, my beaded brow is strung – I trust you.
Awake I’m dreaming life, my night’s a ladder…of strong rung.
The well was great, my will is even greater – I trust you.
.
(2003)
_____
Photograph: Fernando Ayuso Palacios: Ceramic tile mosaic, Tehran, Iran
Federico García Lorca: Ghazal of the Terrible Presence
Posted: August 27, 2011 Filed under: English, Federico García Lorca, Spanish Comments Off on Federico García Lorca: Ghazal of the Terrible Presence
Federico García Lorca (1898-1936)
Translation by A.Z. Foreman
.
I would have the water reft from its bed,
I would have the wind bereft of its dell,
The eyes of the night cleft down from its brow
And my heart bereft of the golden flower;
The huge leaves hear what the oxen say
And the earthworm dies of overshade ;
The teeth that hang in the skullmouth glint
And a gush of yellow flood out the silk.
I can see the wounded night in its duel
Writhing against the impending noon.
I resist a green sunset of venomed skies
And the ruined arch of suffering time.
But don’t shine your immaculate nude at me
Like a black cactus opening out in the reeds.
Leave me with my dark planets, let me ache
But don’t you dare teach me the cool of your waist!
*
El poema original en español:
“Gacela de la Terrible Presencia”
.
Yo quiero que el agua se quede sin cauce,
yo quiero que el viento se quede sin valles.
quiero que la noche se quede sin ojos
y mi corazón sin flor del oro;
que los bueyes hablen con las grandes hojas
y que la lombriz se muera de sombra;
que brillen los dientes de la calavera
y los amarillos inunden la seda.
puedo ver el duelo de la noche herida
luchando enroscada con el mediodía.
resiste un ocaso de verde veneno
y el arco roto donde sufre el tiempo.
pero no ilumines tu limpio desnudo
como un negro cactus abierto en los juncos.
déjame en un ansia de oscuros planetas,
¡ pero no me enseñes tu cintura fresca !
*
We are grateful to A.Z. Foreman for his translation.
Visit his site: poemsintranslation.blogspot.com
The Translator’s Own Poem…
Posted: August 27, 2011 Filed under: A.Z. Foreman, English Comments Off on The Translator’s Own Poem….
A.Z. Foreman
“Beyond Constraints”
.
Language will not be held behind the latches
Of culturedly thick skulls. Beyond intent
Humankind’s tectonic mindscape drives its course
Through times. Your language is a continent
Churned on the planet, changed by all it touches,
Forming a fissure in schismatic rock
Where the least hotspot’s sheer vocalic force
Shifts the sea’s stress. We might as well just talk
And savor it. The mountain will not move
Back to this moment, and the things you love
In this year’s dictionary will be no
Heirloom for great grandchildren anymore
Than plants that burgeoned on the ocean floor
In your backyard a billion years ago.
. . .
A.Z. Foreman is a Linguistics student who is
mad for the art of translation.
Visit his site: http://www.poemsintranslation.blogspot.com
The Old Empire’s Language, 1: Lee Maracle
Posted: August 21, 2011 Filed under: English, Lee Maracle Comments Off on The Old Empire’s Language, 1: Lee Maracle_____
Lee Maracle
“The Language Leaked from my Lips”
The language leaked from my lips in letters too short and too young
to help me understand that remembering had some significance.
The language you gave me failed me, failed to assist me in those
moments when invasion fell upon my private self.
Now my language, so richly textured with instruction, is stripped of
emotion’s unraveling expression of possibility.
This possibility’s poesy, story, hopeful imagination, died in the dark
on the floor in the puddle of my leaked letters.
My lips emptied of light cannot imagine dark whose actuality was my
pathway to future dreamworld carving.
My forever light precludes dreaming in the dark, the starkness of
constant light burns holes through the curtain of hope outside my word puddle.
Letters dance lonely in the stark light at the edge of this pool. Their
death throes mourn my dead dark night.
I crawl about collecting letters, rearranging them, playing with
meaning, grabbing whatever I can from wherever they appear.
These letters feel foreign, scrape at the meaning in my mind, tear at
the yearing of my soul and dance just out of reach of my heart.
_____
Lee Maracle (born 1950) is a member of the Stó:Lō First Nation of British Columbia.
Her literary career began 40 years ago – the poem above is from a basket of poems called
“Turbulent Storm”, part of her collection Bent Box (© 2000, Lee Maracle).
She is also an orator and teacher.
M. NourbeSe Philip: “Meditations on the Declension of Beauty by the Girl with the Flying Cheek-bones”
Posted: August 21, 2011 Filed under: English, M. NourbeSe Philip, Spanish | Tags: Black poets Comments Off on M. NourbeSe Philip: “Meditations on the Declension of Beauty by the Girl with the Flying Cheek-bones”
ZP_M. NourbeSe Philip_by Robin Pacific
M. NourbeSe Philip
.
“Meditations on the Declension of Beauty
by the Girl with the Flying Cheek-bones”
.
If not If not If
Not
If not in yours
_____ In whose
In whose language
Am I
If not in yours
_____ In whose
In whose language
Am I I am
_____ If not in yours
In whose
_____ Am I
(if not in yours)
_____ I am yours
In whose language
_____ Am I not
Am I not I am yours
If not in yours
If not in yours
_____ In whose
In whose language
_____ Am I …
Girl with the flying cheek-bones:
She is
I am
Woman with the behind that drives men mad
And if not in yours
Where is the woman with a nose broad
As her strength
If not in yours
In whose language
Is the man with the full-moon lips
Carrying the midnight of colour
Split by the stars – a smile
If not in yours
_____ In whose
In whose language
_____ Am I
_____ Am I not
_____ Am I I am yours
_____ Am I not I am yours
_____ Am I I am
If not in yours
_____ In whose
In whose language
_____ Am I
If not in yours
_____ Beautiful
. . .
This poem is taken from Marlene Nourbese Philip’s poetry collection,
She Tries Her Tongue – Her Silence Softly Breaks (© 1989, M. NourbeSe Philip).
In the preface she writes: ” In the absence of any other language by which the past
may be repossessed, reclaimed and its most painful aspects transcended,
English in its broadest spectrum must be made to do the job. ”
” Broadest spectrum ” includes the richly creative Caribbean dialects. And:
” The language as we know it has to be dislocated and acted upon – even destroyed –
so that it begins to serve our purposes. It is our only language, and while it is
our mother tongue, ours is also a father tongue. ”
Philip, born in Trinidad in 1947, has lived in Toronto for decades where she has been
essayist, poet and antiracism activist.
. . .
The following is a translation of the poem into Spanish:
“Meditaciones sobre la Declinación de la Belleza
por la Muchacha de los Pómulos altos”
.
Si no Si no Si
No
¿Si no en el lenguaje de usted
– en su lenguaje –
entonces, en lo de quién?
Soy yo
Si no en suyo
En lo de quién
En el lenguaje de quién
Soy yo Soy
Si no en suyo
En lo de quién
Soy yo
(si no en suyo)
Soy suya
En el lenguaje de quién
No soy
No soy, Soy suya
Si no en suyo
Si no en suyo
En lo de quién
En el lenguaje de quién
Soy…
La Muchacha de pómulos altos:
Ella es
Yo soy
Mujer del trasero que vuelve locos a los hombres
Y si no en suyo
¿Dónde está la Mujer de nariz ancha
– ancha como su fuerza?
Si no en suyo
En el lenguaje de quién
¿Está el Hombre de labios como la luna llena
Llevando la medianoche de Color
Reventada por las estrellas – una sonrisa?
En lo de quién
En el lenguaje de quién
Soy
No soy
Soy Soy suya
Soy Soy
Si no en suyo
En lo de quién
En el lenguaje de quién
Soy
Si no en suyo
Bella
. . .
Traducción del inglés al español /
Translation from English into Spanish: Alexander Best
Zócalo Poets 