Globe On My Table: November 2015

Rough version

Uhibb herdha alshair: Apple Quarters - Claire Crowthorne.

Umm laa bibayt walakin filhaqiqa laylan. Laa lnur, wa laalqamar. Fabihiya lalaamal. Hiya baada anahum.

waladanha Fi baytahum. Alan yatakallumun wayalaabun.

Limaada alumm filhaqiqa?

Amut alumm?

Alshaair halwa wahajaza.

Alwaladan fibayt da'iman walumm filzalaam da'iman.

No font or GT on my phone, so I'm making myself do this anyway.

..

Neat version - big difference

احب هذه القصيدة : أرباع التفاح - كلاير كراوثر

الام لا فبيتها ولكن في حديقتها ليلا.

ليس هنك نور القمر.

لها لا الامل.

وهي بعيد عن عائلتها

اولادها في بيتها

الان يتكلمون ويلعبون بدونها.

ولماذا الام في الحديقة؟

هل هي ميتة؟

....هذه القصيدة هلوة وحزنة.

بسبب الاولاد في البيت دائما والام دائما خارج في الظلام....

mpt . modern poetry in translation . Palestine issue . free time in Oxford 2 weeks ago

I got a Darwish poem for the first time. He's talking to himself and getting at ideas. It's more of a conversation than a precise tight set of words. I need clarity. Mixed up hidden meanings annoy me. Just tell me what you are thinking, even if the thoughts are contradictory and confusing. Just spit them out, then toy with them and analyse them to get to what you really deeply mean. It's ok to need more time, to sit in silence until the words come out, even if they are all upside down. They are something to work with. Poems are made like that, a rush of all sorts of words which are then rearranged and organised. Phrases made and taken apart again, like me running my hands through my hair and turning it all round to make a new clipped bundle?? On the back of my head. That's an odd description. Just go forward into new discussions, each fresh interaction with the one you can sit open-eyed in front of.

...

I got a Darwish poem for the first time. He's talking to himself and getting at ideas. It's more of a conversation than a precise tight set of words.

I need clarity. Mixed up hidden meanings annoy me. Just tell me what you are thinking, even if the thoughts are contradictory and confusing. Just spit them out, then toy with them and analyse them to get to what you really deeply mean.

It's ok to need more time, to sit in silence until the words come out, even if they are all upside down. They are something to work with.

Poems are made like that, a rush of all sorts of words which are then rearranged and organised. Phrases made and taken apart again, like me running my hands through my hair and turning it all round to make a new clipped bundle?? On the back of my head. That's an odd description.

Just go forward into new discussions, each fresh interaction with the one you can sit open-eyed in front of.

...

I read it
in a cafe
slowly, then quicker.

Then I understood
that it was
a musing session.

I haven't gone
back to it,
prefer to remember

an imperfect approximate
getting at something.
What has stayed?

Just an impression,
not something I
could defend rigorously.

Stuff all that
rigorous, analytical truth;
objective dead nonsense.

It shuts out
a more fleeting
shadow of thought -

a breath of
wind is neither
right nor wrong.

So a reaction
is what it
is - just then.

...

I like these
3 by 3
patterns of words

they need not
be going to
a set destination

they are a
version of the
clouds passing over

something I made
up back last
year with Rose

we were playing
with words together
and this began.

...

I apologise to
the writers of
neat, accurate analyses.

That is an
entirely different project,
perfect in itself.

Sunday, 15 November 2015

Translating one line of poetry a week on Facebook

This is turning into a bit of a nightmare. It is occupying too many comment boxes. There is so much to explain that it takes ages. I want to mention the invisible vowels and the endings. I don't want to miss out anything crucial. I want to explain all the things that I didn't have explained to me, clearly, simply and slowly.

Originally I wanted to spend an afternoon a week with someone friendly at a cafe doing this. My imagination said surely at least 10 people would jump at the chance!

What's worse, I have decided to not post short films again until December. This allows space for the tribute to Khalid Al Asaad of Palmyra links all November. It means that the group has gone all wordy. Will my new members be put off and get fed up?

Once in a while I need to write in English.