another of Mary Tang’s translations on Life is But This
Month: March 2017
Leaving the Mountain by Wen Tian Xiang (translation)
and I return from London to read this translation by Mary Tang on her blog Life is But This
To Hope I Return, to the Wood by Carilda Oliver Labra
To hope I return, to the wood
that built my important days,
to the wayward spring
of times past.
To the justice of seeing it all
as if it belonged to me,
for when it’s said and done there’s no way
to abandon the hunger of the beast.
translated by Katherine M. Hedeen
To Those Who Follow Me
I’m off to London for the week: the Book Fair, some theatre, a museum or two.
So I may not be dropping in here very frequenctly. Instead I’ll be immersed in a world where the natives speak English, though perhaps not exactly as we do in New York. But they sort of been doing it longer, which explains a lot.
from a line by Liu Yung
if giving love
is taking pain
then I swallow
all the pain
in your heart
Clarence Darrow on other people’s opinions
The Egrets by Du Mu (translation)
Mary Tang’s newest translation on her blog Life is But This
Mountain Path by Du Mu (translation)
A new translation from Mary Tang on her blog Life is But This
my old home
there
where the ice cream parlour
once stood
an army recruiting office
Kesselman’s gone
where my mother shopped
for jewelry
the bank on the corner
where Maryanne worked
a discount clothing store
the hardware store
both Johnny and I
drove delivery trucks for
now Wicker Heaven
gone Atlantic Avenue Deli
the Arcade Movie Theatre
Woolworth’s Five & Dime
just that wind
that blows down every street
in every town
as strong as ever
in my old home
The Boy Unable To Speak by Federico Garcia Lorca
. .The small boy is looking for his voice.
(The King of the Crickets had it.)
The boy was looking
in a drop of water for his voice.
. .I don’t want the voice to speak with;
I will make a ring from it
that my silence will wear
on its little finger.
. .The small boy was looking
in a drop of water for his voice.
. .(Far away the captured voice
was getting dressed up like a cricket.)
translated by Robert Bly
Leonard Durso 