Category Archives: Anthology

My collected writings and those of family members.

Way Too Much Confession

Posted on January 7, 2023 by JMN

I’m aware that I read poetry in too forensic a way, particularly poetry of the moment. Is it because I identify as a translator? I broach a new poem in English with a cocked snoot, I’m afraid. It’s recognizable as … Continue reading →

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Bluebonnet Kool-aid: Funky Word Doodles

Posted on January 4, 2023 by JMN

Fly me to the moonand let me play among the stars.Let me see what life is likeon Jupiter and Mars.In other words,hold my hand,in other words,darling, kiss me. Bart Howard’s old song makes no sense! There’s no oxygen to breathe … Continue reading →

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Constrained to Endure Despite?

Posted on January 4, 2023 by JMN

For studying Arabic, Congruent (1) translations can be invaluable for working out particulars of the language’s behavior. Freewheeling translations are more pleasing to read, but can be “noisy” in a such a way as to create their own problems. Does … Continue reading →

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Field of Blood

Posted on December 22, 2022 by JMN

I’ve read and listened to Edith Sitwell’s darkly musical poem “Still Falls the Rain,” guided there by poet Charles Behlen. It spurred a flurry of reference tracing; soars over broad reaches of scripture and fable in a short space; has … Continue reading →

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Uh, You, Hey, I’m Talking Here!

Posted on December 15, 2022 by JMN

ḥarfu-n-nidā’ — “the particle of calling out,” (exclaiming, direct address). It establishes a “vocative dependency” with the noun that follows. That noun, according to certain rules, will have either a nominative or an accusative case ending. I like to think … Continue reading →

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Trills and Spills from ‘Gilgamesh’s Snake’

Posted on December 14, 2022 by JMN

Verses are from Ghareeb Iskander, Gilgamesh’s Snake and Other Poems, Bilingual Edition translated from the Arabic by John Glenday and Ghareeb Iskander, Syracuse University Press, 2016. Translations here are mine. (c) 2022 JMN — EthicalDative. All rights reserved

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‘We Were Limpid, So We Were Not Turbid’

Posted on December 5, 2022 by JMN

A verse of classical Arabic can be tightly packed. Besides immersion in grammar, what’s most useful to this student of the language is a highly Congruent (1) translation. It amounts to what’s called a “trot,” and is the least likely … Continue reading →

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On Saying and Meaningness

Posted on November 28, 2022 by JMN

I painted it all tried to paint my thoughts / And caught so little / The world still grows it grows relentlessly / And yet there is always less of it(From “The Old Painter on a Walk” by Adam Zagajewski, … Continue reading →

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‘O Thou There, Who Barkest at the Bènū ‘s Sīd’

Posted on November 5, 2022 by JMN

Below is jargon improvised for gauging how a translation navigates its source text. Note how the verbiage is strewn with hedging adverbials, conceding a priori that the labels are judgments, which by definition are subjective, privative, compromised, blinkered and fallible. … Continue reading →

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When Is a Viper Just a Snake?

Posted on October 21, 2022 by JMN

I share my neck of the world with rattlesnakes, water moccasins, copperheads, coral snakes (red-on-yellow, kill a fellow) and cottonmouths. I can’t tell a moccasin from a cottonmouth — they frequent water, and I don’t. When I see one of … Continue reading →

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