Tag Archives: translation

Unsung Heroes, Sung Villains

Posted on December 11, 2018 by

Hannah Arendt lamented the damage done by translators to some of her favorite German poems. (“Remembering W. H. Auden,” The New Yorker, Jan. 20, 1975 — recently reprinted). As best I recall, she as good as said that trying to … Continue reading →

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Hello, Non-America

Posted on December 6, 2018 by

nyti.ms/2DZufmq The WASP virtues … included a cosmopolitanism that was often more authentic than our own performative variety — a cosmopolitanism that coexisted with white man’s burden racism but also sometimes transcended it, because for every Brahmin bigot there was … Continue reading →

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Lexicomania at the Table

Posted on December 4, 2018 by

ABOVE: My first vocab list for Helena (age 10) made at her mother Eva’s request. I’m on pins and needles to show it. Each time I expose Helena to my fetish for coloring the enclosed spaces of letters, I detect … Continue reading →

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“Soria” Wrecked: Meter and Rhyme

Posted on September 13, 2018 by

“Soria” by Antonio Machado, Spanish Poet, 1875-1939 From “Campos de Castilla,” Antonio Machado, Biblioteca Anaya, 1964. (English translations by James Mansfield Nichols) Translating into meter is a lost cause, but adding a rhyme scheme escalates it to a punishing lost cause. You’re … Continue reading →

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“Soria”

Posted on September 10, 2018 by

“Soria” by Antonio Machado, Spanish poet, 1875-1939 From “Campos de Castilla,” Antonio Machado, Biblioteca Anaya, Edición de José Luis Cano, 1964. (English translation by James Mansfield Nichols) The shield of Soria has the following heraldic description: [3] In a field … Continue reading →

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“A Prayer for My Daughter” (10 — final stanza)

Posted on September 7, 2018 by

A Prayer for My Daughter by W.B. Yeats (Spanish translation by James Mansfield Nichols) https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/14635/a-prayer-for-my-daughter A Prayer for My Daughter (10 — final stanza) And may her bridegroom bring her to a house Where all’s accustomed, ceremonious; For arrogance and … Continue reading →

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“A Prayer for My Daughter” (9)

Posted on September 5, 2018 by

A Prayer for My Daughter by W. B. Yeats (Spanish translation by James Mansfield Nichols) https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/14635/a-prayer-for-my-daughter A Prayer for My Daughter (9) Considering that, all hatred driven hence, The soul recovers radical innocence And learns at last that it is … Continue reading →

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