This article has been my introduction to Transtromer:
worldliteraturetoday - transformative-effect-color-poetry-tomas-transtromer
Make sure to keep on going until you get to the part about the underlying poem being in no language. This man is moving my brain around.
Showing posts with label language. Show all posts
Showing posts with label language. Show all posts
Wednesday, 18 June 2014
Wednesday, 26 March 2014
Languages, marriages and first births
Both of my grandparents' marriages involved 2 languages. English with French and English with Serbo-Croat. How did they deal with things when they were cross and couldn't think straight? It's impossible enough with the same language.
There were religious crosses (!) too, Catholic and Church of England, Serbian Orthodox and Church of England. They were called 'mixed marriages' then.
Both my grandmothers went back to their families to have their first children and have them baptised presumably. Their birth stories weren't encouraging though!
Not even an aspirin for my mother's birth, though there was a midwife sitting there knitting in Fontainebleau, as my French grandmother pointed out to me bitterly. She had her second child in the UK after that experience.
In my Serbian grandmother's case she took the decision to have all the drugs in New York for the next 3 children. So that tells me quite enough about her first birth with my father in Belgrade.
There were religious crosses (!) too, Catholic and Church of England, Serbian Orthodox and Church of England. They were called 'mixed marriages' then.
Both my grandmothers went back to their families to have their first children and have them baptised presumably. Their birth stories weren't encouraging though!
Not even an aspirin for my mother's birth, though there was a midwife sitting there knitting in Fontainebleau, as my French grandmother pointed out to me bitterly. She had her second child in the UK after that experience.
In my Serbian grandmother's case she took the decision to have all the drugs in New York for the next 3 children. So that tells me quite enough about her first birth with my father in Belgrade.
Monday, 9 December 2013
Breathtaking
I hope it is ok for me to transcribe and type out this snippet from a video I have been watching.
Pierre Joris was talking about the poetry of Paul Celan. The talk was given on 3rd December 2013, last Tuesday.
"...you do not learn to use the language. Language uses you. You enter language. Language was there before. When you die, language goes on. So you are only in there for a given moment. Language is always there up and beyond you."
Wow. When he said that the room went all quiet. That was the most breathtaking moment of the whole talk.
Pierre Joris was talking about the poetry of Paul Celan. The talk was given on 3rd December 2013, last Tuesday.
"...you do not learn to use the language. Language uses you. You enter language. Language was there before. When you die, language goes on. So you are only in there for a given moment. Language is always there up and beyond you."
Wow. When he said that the room went all quiet. That was the most breathtaking moment of the whole talk.
Saturday, 4 September 2010
Problems
One thing I say to the boys is that I have good problems. I started this a couple of years ago when I was worried about something and could see they were getting worried too.
I wanted to vent a bit about the situation, not remain silent, so this was my method of being honest. I like the concept of good and bad problems. Good ones are the ones where I realise how lucky I am to even be able to have the issue in the first place!!
Sunday, 7 June 2009
Old English
This is fascinating, so many words haven't changed a bit. The translation I have runs alongside the original, practically line for line. Seamus Heaney uses simple English words to emphasise the similarity I think.
Sae - sea
Sande - sand/beach
Worde - words/speech
Aesc - ash (sc is pronounced sh)
We - we
Under - under
Thaes - this
There is a great online OE dictionary. I have found myself simply reading down the lists of words and meanings. I wonder when all the ge- verbs disappeared.
I keep on bounding up to my sons and telling them that head, nose, hand, foot, tooth etc must be Old English, because they are short words and are for the essentials. I have pointed out the -ing ending which we use to create verbs from new words, making them our own.
I have a sort of giddiness when I think of words like hall, work, gear, shield, spear, anchor, sun and winter. It is all so ancient. Rather like when I see the ridges of the old farming strips lit up by the evening sun.
Sae - sea
Sande - sand/beach
Worde - words/speech
Aesc - ash (sc is pronounced sh)
We - we
Under - under
Thaes - this
There is a great online OE dictionary. I have found myself simply reading down the lists of words and meanings. I wonder when all the ge- verbs disappeared.
I keep on bounding up to my sons and telling them that head, nose, hand, foot, tooth etc must be Old English, because they are short words and are for the essentials. I have pointed out the -ing ending which we use to create verbs from new words, making them our own.
I have a sort of giddiness when I think of words like hall, work, gear, shield, spear, anchor, sun and winter. It is all so ancient. Rather like when I see the ridges of the old farming strips lit up by the evening sun.
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