POETIC LICENSE – Translations and Versions
To read a poem in translation is to pledge troth to a ghost, a wispy, intangible presence residing in another world you can never touch without crossing over to it. At the same time for a poet, translation comes down to writing one poem about another. We call the absolute right to put what we want into our own poems poetic license.
A Lamb of the Lord
A Stand of Flowers
Afterwards
Ancient Story
Cadieux’s Lament
Distraught Dream
Everything Blooming
Gramsci’s Ashes
Hafez’s Joseph Gone Astray
Heine’s Exile
Icons
In the Eyes of a Dumb Beast
Ivan Goll’s Headstone
Lozeau’s Azure
Maple Leaves
Montale’s Lemon Trees
Not Nonsense Verse but Verse about Nonsense
One Moment
Pushkin’s Plea
Quasimodo’s Blessed Brume
Quasimodo’s Dying Ray of Sun
Rain on Pines
Reminder to Self
Rilke to Tsvetaeva, Jealous over Pasternak
Rilke’s Sweet Song
Rimbaud’s Au cabaret vert
Rimbaud’s Sonnet du trou du cul
Rimbaud’s Bateau ivre
Rimbaud’s Coeur supplicié
Sailor, You Will Always Love the Sea
Sensei, the Serene
Shepherd’s Siesta
Sixth Sense
Soft Yellow Buttercup Field
Sor Juana’s Silly Men
Stichless Seam
Montale’s Lemon Trees
The Real Danish Summer
The Strangest of All
The Yard
Tranströmer Beheld
Tranströmer’s Traces
Xu Zhimo’s Adieu to Cambridge
Why, Death, Should I Fear You?