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)
No comments:
Post a Comment