Tag Archives: language

Be Paint

Posted on April 11, 2021 by JMN

… [Clement] Greenberg’s organizing idea was surprisingly simple: modern painting, having ceased to be illustrative, ought to be decorative. Once all the old jobs of painting—portraying the bank president, showing off the manor house, imagining the big battle—had been turned … Continue reading →

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But Also Thank the Devil

Posted on April 6, 2021 by JMN

The worst way to defeat a social or cultural ill is to declare war on it. The U.S. declares war on problems it can’t or won’t solve. The worst way to foster a social or cultural good is to declare … Continue reading →

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A Translation

Posted on April 3, 2021 by JMN

If I Should Come Upon Your House Lonely in the West Texas DesertBy Natalie Diaz. Selected by Reginald Dwayne Betts, NYTimes, 4-1-21. [Translator’s note: The title’s ‘West Texas Desert’ is resonant and necessary. For my Spanish interpretation, however, the fact … Continue reading →

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The ‘Open-(Ahem)’

Posted on March 31, 2021 by JMN

The polite, socially acceptable name by which it’s currently known is the medlar. But for the best part of 900 years, the fruit was called the “open-arse” – thought to be a reference to the appearance of its own large … Continue reading →

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Travesía (7)

Posted on March 30, 2021 by JMN

Versión castellana del poema “Crossing Brooklyn Ferry” (1856) de Walt WhitmanEnglish text at http://www.poetryfoundation.orgSpanish Interpretation by JMN Parts 4 and 5 in their entirety follow. Cleave to awareness there are 9 parts. (4)These and all else were to me the … Continue reading →

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Wide Load

Posted on March 28, 2021 by JMN

Jason Farrago lavishes a container shipload of exegetical rumination on Julie Mehretu’s paintings. Lines accreted in an essentially radial configuration, with large arcs orbiting an absent central axis, and orthogonal spokes sprouting from the core. (The Mehretu black line is … Continue reading →

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Neruda LXXXV

Posted on March 25, 2021 by JMN

[LXXXV]Del mar hacia las calles corre la vaga nieblaA seaward-springing hint of fog runs through the streetscomo el vapor de un buey enterrado en el frío,like steam from an ox interred in the cold,y largas lenguas de agua se acumulan … Continue reading →

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‘El Borracho’ de Joaquín Sorolla

Posted on March 24, 2021 by JMN

“As if in preparation, with this deeply human painting he returned to his engagement with the Spanish peasant and, perhaps as important, to making brilliant use once more of the indispensable Spanish colour – black.” (Mark Brown, “National Gallery buys … Continue reading →

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Travesía (6)

Posted on March 22, 2021 by JMN

Versión castellana del poema “Crossing Brooklyn Ferry” (1856) de Walt WhitmanEnglish text at http://www.poetryfoundation.orgSpanish Interpretation by JMN [Translator’s note: I’m uncomfortably aware that I border on paraphrase and not translation in the last line particularly. The line casts flicker down … Continue reading →

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Neruda LXXXVI

Posted on March 18, 2021 by JMN

[LXXXVI]Oh Cruz del Sur, oh trébol de fósforo fragante,O Southern Cross, O cloverleaf of fragrant phosphorous,con cuatro besos hoy penetró tu hermosuratoday your beauty pierced with four kissesy atravesó la sombra y mi sombrero:and crossed over the shadow and my … Continue reading →

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