Re: Of course, it could just be that I'm not enlightened
citycabn (citycabn@gateway.net)
Fri, 15 Oct 1999 10:03:02 -0700
Matt,
Not sure if some of the rocks were aimed at my cabin here in San Francisco
(as I had been shouting through a megaphone that day re Blyth, haiku
poetry, etc.).
Intrigued by your reference to translators of Rilke. I assume you are
blasting them out of the water. As one who is dependant on their work (I
have only one year of college German), I always get the sense, with the best
of them, that one at most is seeing an incredible tapestry, but from the
rear.
As for haiku, wouldn't know a real haiku if it climbed inside my ear. In
reading Blyth's translations and commentaries, I feel as if R.H. is sitting
there beside me, coaching, pleading with me, "Bruce, first Basho is
saying...." And by the 17th syllable I am still deaf, and miss the real
poem carried within the unwritten 18th.
sans poetry, prose or enlightenment,
Bruce
-----Original Message-----
From: Matt Kozusko <mkozusko@parallel.park.uga.edu>
To: bananafish@lists.nyu.edu <bananafish@lists.nyu.edu>
Date: Thursday, October 14, 1999 1:50 PM
Subject: Of course, it could just be that I'm not enlightened
>Sundeep Dougal wrote:
>
>> And, yes, Matt, what a shame about poetry translators.
>
>When it comes to Rilke, yes. But actually, I was talking about the
>poetry itself. As most of you know, my primary purpose on this list
>is to say provoking, vaguely snotty things about the conversation
>whenever it becomes too celebratory. To heave big rocks into all
>placid lakes in the haikus that comprise the bfish community. So, as
>painful as it is:
>
>In the west, the haiku ends up a matter of empty simplicity and
>understatement and a bunch of people with knowing, enlightened grins.
>It's righteous posturing.
>
>JDS for example. His most intolerable posturing (or, if you like,
>most of his intolerable posturing) involves eastern poetry and
>enlightenment. I don't see where being curmudgeonly and conceited is
>commensurate with being elightened or even being on your way to
>enlightenment. It don't even see where being mysterious is part of
>being enlightened. That's part of the *image* of being enlightened.
>Probably the same sort of thing that Sato objected to in the
>misleading translation.
>
>--
>Matt Kozusko mkozusko@parallel.park.uga.edu
>