Like Water - Palestinian Artist Taysir Batniji
109 words meaning water in Arabic language. This inventory was established by Mahmoud Darwish in his collection ‘Memory for forgetfulness’ - transcription with water on floor. - Taysir Batniji
(Source: isqineeha, via adrowningwoman)
— An excerpt from The Philosophy of 3 AM by Charles Simic on Zbigniew Herbert.
(Source: rimeswriting)
— مثل شعبي . With thanks to everymorningproverb.
(Source: broadcastlife, via everymorningproverb)
INTERVIEWER
You are one of the most widely translated poets—into about thirty languages. Into what languages are you best translated?
NERUDA
I would say into Italian, because of the similarity between the two languages. English and French, which are the two languages I know outside of Italian, are languages which do not correspond to Spanish—neither in vocalization, or in the placement, or the color, or the weight of the words. It is not a question of interpretative equivalence; no, the sense can be right, but this correctness of translation, of meaning, can be the destruction of a poem. In many of the translations into French—I don’t say in all of them—my poetry escapes, nothing remains; one cannot protest because it says the same thing that one has written. But it is obvious that if I had been a French poet, I would not have said what I did in that poem, because the value of the words is so different. I would have written something else.
INTERVIEWER
And in English?
NERUDA
I find the English language so different from Spanish—so much more direct—that many times it expresses the meaning of my poetry, but does not convey the atmosphere of my poetry. It may be that the same thing happens when an English poet is translated into Spanish.
”— An excerpt from Pablo Neruda interviewed by Rita Guibert in The Art of Poetry No.14 by The Paris Review.
(Source: rimeswriting)
— An excerpt from Czeslaw Milosz interviewed by Robert Faggen in The Art of Poetry No. 70 for The Paris Review.
(Source: rimeswriting)
— An excerpt from Czeslaw Milosz interviewed by Robert Faggen in The Art of Poetry No. 70 for The Paris Review.
(Source: rimeswriting)
— An excerpt from Czeslaw Milosz interviewed by Robert Faggen in The Art of Poetry No. 70 for The Paris Review.
(Source: rimeswriting)
INTERVIEWER
Then a book like the little volume called Everness would be a good book for someone to read about your work?
BORGES
I think it is. Besides, the lady who wrote it is a close friend of mine. I found that word in Roget’s Thesaurus. Then I thought that word was invented by Bishop Wilkins, who invented an artificial language.
INTERVIEWER
You’ve written about that.
BORGES
Yes, I wrote about Wilkins. But he also invented a wonderful word that strangely enough has never been used by English poets—an awful word, really, a terrible word. Everness, of course, is better than eternity because eternity is rather worn now. Ever-r-ness is far better than the German Ewigkeit, the same word. But he also created a beautiful word, a word that’s a poem in itself, full of hopelessness, sadness, and despair: the word neverness. A beautiful word, no? He invented it, and I don’t know why the poets left it lying about and never used it.
INTERVIEWER
Have you used it?
BORGES
No, no, never. I used everness, but neverness is very beautiful. There is something hopeless about it, no? And there is no word with the same meaning in any other language, or in English. You might say impossibility, but that’s very tame for neverness: the Saxon ending in -ness. Neverness. Keats uses nothingness: “Till love and fame to nothingness do sink”; but nothingness, I think, is weaker than neverness. You have in Spanish nadería—many similar words—but nothing like neverness. So if you’re a poet, you should use that word. It’s a pity for that word to be lost in the pages of a dictionary. I don’t think it’s ever been used. It may have been used by some theologian; it might. I suppose Jonathan Edwards would have enjoyed that kind of word or Sir Thomas Browne, perhaps, and Shakespeare, of course, because he was very fond of words.
”— Excerpt from Jorge Luis Borges in The Art of Fiction No. 39 , interviewed by Ronald Christ.
(Source: rimeswriting)
English Is Essentially __________.
“English is essentially Norse as spoken by a gang of French thugs.”—Benct Philip Jonsson
“English is essentially a language that uses vowels no other language would accept.”—Luís Henrique
“English is what you get from Normans trying to pick up Saxon girls.”—Bryan Maloney
“English is essentially a French menu stuttered by a fish-and-chips dealer.”—Kala Tunu
“English is essentially the works of Joyce with the hard bits taken out.”—Jon Hanna
“English is essentially all exceptions and no rules.”—Jonathan Bettencourt
A selection of “Essentialist Explanations.” Thanks to the Penguin Press for pointing out this gem. Via theparisreview, with thanks to invisiblestories.
“Here is where I mastered a language once used to curb their native tongues.”
“My roots runs deep”
“Somewhere within the pain a longing remains”
Listen to the spoken words of A Place Called eKhaya by Soneni & The Soul.
— Jeanette Winterson, Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? . Via junkycosmonaut, with special thanks to awritersruminations.
Been (again and again) pondering on Arabic language hence why some of my screen grabs from my twitter. Rim.
Fasl :Calmness lies on the other side of your tasks. Wasl : Your tasks are your calmness. Sheikh Abdal Hakim Murad (Tim Winter) , Contentions.
— Peter Coviello, “Love In the Ruins: or, Should I Go to Grad School?” With thanks to whateverjeanne and karaj.
(Source: bestsparkler)
