tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7723694470723601010.post1660554952636082714..comments2024-01-01T17:31:59.391-06:00Comments on Poems Found in Translation: Tadeusz Borowski: Night Over Birkenau (From Polish)A.Z. Foremanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07178150009150360184noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7723694470723601010.post-70990067239312705942013-07-05T11:30:08.099-05:002013-07-05T11:30:08.099-05:00Here is an alternate translation:
Night again. A...Here is an alternate translation:<br /><br /><br />Night again. Again the grim sky closes<br />circling like a vulture over the dead silence. <br />Like a crouching beast over the camp<br />the moon sets, pale as a corpse.<br /><br /><br />And like a shield abandoned in battle,<br />blue Orion--lost among the stars.<br />The transports growl in darkness<br />and the eyes of crematorium blaze.<br /><br /><br />It's steamy, stifling. Sleep is a stone.<br />Breath rattles in my throat.<br />This lead foot crushing my chest<br />is the silence of three million dead.<br /><br /><br />Night, night without end. No dawn comes.<br />My eyes are poisoned from sleep.<br />Like God's judgement on the corpse of the earth,<br />fog descends over Birkenau.<br /><br /><br />Translated by Tadeusz Pioro, Larry Rafferty and Meryl Natchez<br />Tadeusz Borowski, Selected Poems, 1990Meryl Natcheznoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7723694470723601010.post-34735300064296901062011-08-27T07:15:43.116-05:002011-08-27T07:15:43.116-05:00Sounding like an expert there Mr. Ansky. Someone w...Sounding like an expert there Mr. Ansky. Someone who knows what he's talking about. Someone who has the talent to write good original poetry and make good translations. Which is ironic.Ryan Conornoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7723694470723601010.post-45418920592263493792011-08-09T04:27:40.288-05:002011-08-09T04:27:40.288-05:00Thanks for this. I've come across your blog ju...Thanks for this. I've come across your blog just a while<br />ago. It's a relief to see somebody not adding to the overspilling heaps of<br />English poetry in translation out there (at best, abandoning rhyme schemes and<br />meters left and right) which favors "crisp" and "clear"<br />tones, so "close" to the literary crib of the original text, that<br />everything in it is rendered to sound and read PoMo (at best), sterile from the time<br />period, tone, syntax and other characteristics of form and content, towards<br />creating a uniform muddle. Keep up the good (un-impounded) work.<br /><br /><br />Best wishes,<br /><br /><br />Iliya AnskyIliya Anskynoreply@blogger.com