Le français followed by a version in English y una versión alternativa en español. All these texts, and especially the English and Spanish, were substantially revised on several separate occasions in 2023 and 2024 and 2026 . . . (One of several Montaigbakhtinian poems that cannot resist revising.)
This is also another example of how I often do not try to translate my poems from one language to another; I prepare separate versions, following what my ear and my intuitions, however imperfect, suggest for each language. (And a writer should be careful approaching the absurd or surreal, because, in such a context, most anything may seem to work. And thus the endless revising?)
When I was first working on these poemínimos (short poems), I happened on Susan McLean’s wonderful translations into English of short poems (“epigrams”) by the Spanish-Roman poet Martial. Two (hardly surrealistic) samples may be found below at Martial.
Si on lit trop, tout devient compliquée
Tôt ce matin, je me réveille – et
« Que disait-elle ? » y était parmi
Quelques réflexions sur la Cinquième Symphonie.
Tous ces gribouillis près de mon lit.
« Un homme s’est tiré une balle à travers un orteil,
Avant d’enfiler une corde à travers son nez. »
Si on lit trop
Tout devient compliquée.
This morning awaking, what did I find?
This morning awaking, what did I find?
Scribbles from dreams just left of my bed –
“I don’t need you to tell me,”
Was one thing they said.
“Beethoven’s Fifth is about a man,
Who shot off his toe
With a rope through his nose.”
(How then’s a man to rest his head?)
¿La vida puede parecer más complicada si en exceso lees?
esta mañana temprano
en la penumbra encontré
garabatos de sueños
¿acerca de qué?
una sinfonía famosa
que se refiere a alguien
que se disparó el dedo
mientras se sonaba la nariz
con el sol y lo demás
busco el antifaz
¿La vida puede parecer más complicada
si en exceso lees?
Martial
Many thanks to the American Library in Paris for introducing me to Susan McLean’s Selected Epigrams: Martial (The University of Wisconsin Press 2014). The original, Latin poems were published in Rome between AD 86 and 103. Martial was born sometime between 38 and 41 AD in Augusta Bilbilis (near what is now the city of Calatayud in the Sistema Ibérico mountain range, northern Spain).
Image at right is a bust of Martialis (Martial) by Juan Cruz Melero (1910-1986). A few samples here of Martial’s and MacLean’s work:
poem 1.30
Sabidius, I don’t like you. Why? No clue.
I just don’t like you. That will have to do.
poem 11.19
Why won’t I wed you, Galla? You’re well-read.
My cock makes frequent grammar slips in bed.
— Poem(s) and “cover” (homepage) drawing by William Eaton.
