Wednesday, February 25, 2009

the world’s stone-hard heart


Have just discovered the website of a British poet I've been reading and admiring for years, Peter Riley. Right on the first page, there is a poem followed by a comment on the pitfalls and persistence of poetry that I heartily endorse. Well worth reading in its entirety.

[Zerschmilts, du felsenhartes Hertze!]

The quotation in German is from an eighteenth century opera which is never now performed, and means, “Melt, you stone-hard heart!” I don’t normally quote in a foreign language without an immediate in-text translation, but there didn’t seem to be room for that here. My address to the world is occluded by the world’s resistance or stone-hard heart, like something in a foreign language, or something never performed. It seemed best therefore not to address the world. So, poetry.

(full version here)

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