Poets Translate Poets: A Hudson Review Anthology

Poets Tr anslate Poets

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p o e t s

t r a n s l a t e

p o e t s

A Hudson Review
Anthology

e d i t e d b y
pa u l a d e i t z

Syracuse University Press

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Copyright © 2013 by Syracuse University Press

Syracuse, New York 13244-5290

All Rights Reserved

First Edition 2013

12 13 14 15 16 17 6 5 4 3 2 1

8 Th

e paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1992.

For a listing of books published and distributed by Syracuse University Press, visit our website at SyracuseUniversityPress.syr.edu.

ISBN: 978-0-8156-1027-4

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

[CIP COPY TO COME]

Manufactured in the United States of America

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In memory of

Frederick Morgan

(1922–2004)

Founding Editor of the
Hudson Review

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pau l a d e i t z has edited the
Hudson Review
since 1998. Th

e journal

was founded in New York in 1948 by Frederick Morgan, Joseph Bennett,

and William Arrowsmith and is, according to the
New York Times
, “one

of the most prestigious literary journals in the country.” Paula Deitz is

also a cultural critic who writes about art, architecture, and landscape

design for newspapers and magazines here and abroad.

m a r k j a r m a n is a poet and Centennial Professor of English at

Vanderbilt University and an advisory editor for the
Hudson Review
.

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con t en ts

Preface, by Paula Deitz
xix

Introduction, by Mark Jarman
xxiii

Bulgarian
1

Krassin Himmirsky
3

Th

e Cricket

Chinese
5

Tu Fu
7

Adviser to the Court:
Working All Night in Springtime;

Reply to a Friend’s Advice; On the Way Out

Banishment:
Too Much Heat, Too Much Work; Reunion

Old English
11

Anonymous
13

Th

e Fire-Drake, from
Beowulf

Middle English
19

Anonymous Fourteenth-Century Poet
21

From
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

Old French
39

Richard I
41

Chanson

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Middle French
43

Christine de Pisan
45

“Doulce chose est que mariage

“Seulete suis, et seulete vueil estre”

“Sage seroit qui se saroit garder”

French
49

François Villon
51

From the
Testament
: Th

e Old Woman Regretting the Time of

Her Youth, Lament of the Beautiful Helmet Maker

Ballade: Th

e Beautiful Helmet Maker to the Daughters of Joy

Villon’s Epitaph (Ballade of the Hanged Men)

Joachim du Bellay
57

Les Amours XIII

Jean-Antoine de Baïf
58

Jean Passerat
59

Sonnet

Pierre Corneille
60

From
Le Cid

Jean de La Fontaine
78

Th

e Scythian Philosopher

Phoebus and Boreas

Th

e Schoolboy, the Pedant, and the Man with a Garden

Victor Hugo
82

So Boaz Slept

Leconte de Lisle
86

Leilah Asleep

Charles Baudelaire
87

“Je n’ai pas oublié, voisine de la ville . . .”

Th

e Swan

viii
C o n t e n t s

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Stéphane Mallarmé
90

Th

e Aft ernoon of a Faun. Eclogue

Paul Valéry
96

Th

e Birth of Venus

Bather

In Sleeping Beauty’s Wood

Caesar

Guillaume Apollinaire
99

Church Bells

Valery Larbaud
100

Th

ese Sounds and Th

is Movement: Ode

Images

La rue Souffl

ot: Romance

Jean Follain
104

Landscape of a Child on His Way to the Place of the Regents

Black Meat

Th

e School and Nature

Yves Bonnefoy
106

To the Voice of Kathleen Ferrier

Th

e Farewell

On the Motion and the Immobility of Douve: Th

eatre

Philippe Jaccottet
114

“Night is a great sleeping city”

Seed Time

Th

e Ignorant Man

Distances

German
121

Walther von der Vogelweide
123

“Under the lime-tree,”

C on t e n t s
ix

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Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
125

To Werther

Elegy

Reconciliation

Christian Morgenstern
132

Maids on Saturday

Erich Kästner
133

Autobiography

Ancient Greek
135

Homer
137

Helen on the Walls

From
Th

e Odyssey

Sappho
146

1. “Some there are who say that the fairest thing seen”

2. To a Rival

3. “When we lived all as one she adored you as”

4. Epitaph

Sophocles
148

From
Antigone

A Chorus from
Oedipus Rex

Women of Trachis

Greek
197

Kostis Palamas
199

Th

e Cypress Tree

C. P. Cavafy
200

Longings

Manuel Comnenus

He Asked about the Quality—

Since Nine—

x
C o n t e n t s

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Prayer

Days of 1908

Voices

Yannis Ritsos
205

Level Duration

Announcement

Remembrances

Hungarian
207

Attila József
209

To Sit, to Stand, to Kill, to Die

Attila József

Italian
211

Giuseppe Ungaretti
213

Little Monologue

Lucio Piccolo
220

Veneris Venefi ca Agrestis

Th

e Night

Landscape: From Anna Perenna

Japanese
227

Kakinomoto no Hitomaro
229

Ode at the Time of the Temporary Interment of Princess Asuka

at Kinoe

A Naga-uta on the Death of His Wife

Grief aft er the Mountain-Crossing of the Prince

Motomaro Senge
233

Tangerines, My Boy, and Me

Th

e Soy Mash Vendor

C on t e n t s
xi

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Latin
235

Lucretius
237

From
Th

e Nature of Th

ings
: From Book 1,
Against the Evils of

Religion
; From Book 3,
Against the Fear of Death
; From Book

4,
Against Passion
; From Book 5,
On the Development of

Civilization

Catullus
246

CI

Horace
247

I, 25

Prayer to Venus

Macedonian
249

Bogomil Gjuzel
251

How the Eagle Sees It

Persian
253

Fakhr addin Gorgani
255

From
Vis and Ramin

Polish
261

Zbigniew Herbert
263

Arion

To Marcus Aurelius

Maturity

Th

e Wringer

Episode in a Library

Portuguese
267

Pero Meogo
269

“He goes, my lover,”

Joan de Guilhade
270

“Friends, I cannot deny”

xii
C o n t e n t s

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Nuno Fernandes Torneol
271

“Waken, my love, who sleep in the cold morning,”

Francisco de Sá de Miranda
272

“At the voice of the enchanter”

Provençal
273

Guillem Comte de Peitau
275

“Th

at the fevered breath attain relief”

“Friend, I would make verses . . . that’s understood,”

Giraut de Bornelh
278

“Glorious Lord, fountain of clarity,”

Raimbaut de Vaqueiras
280

“Guard us well, my sentry,”

“High waves that shift and gather from the sea”

Peire Vidal
283

From the
Vida

Quechua
285

Anonymous Poets
287

Prayer

Prayer

Prayer

Herder’s Song

“Joy in your mouth”

“I’m bringing up a fl y”

“My mother brought me to life”

“When you fi nd you’re alone on the island in the river”

Romanesco
295

G. G. Belli
297

Th

e Creation of the World

Th

e Life of Man

C on t e n t s
xiii

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Th

e Worldwide Flood

Free Trade

A Dog’s Life

Th

e Popess Joan

Th

e Sovereigns of the Old World

Th

e Spaniard

Th

e Good Soldiers

Th

e Coff ee-House Philosopher

Th

e Day of Judgment

Russian
303

Fyodor Tyutchev
305

At the Imperial Village

Th

e Past

Anna Akhmatova
308

Under the Icon

Kiev,

For Us to Lose Freshness

Ah! You’ve Come Back

Th

e Twenty-First

From
Rosary

As One Falls Ill

Epigram

Osip Mandelstam
313

“Insomnia. Homer. Taut sails.”

Tristia

“We shall meet again, in Petersburg,”

“Armed with the sight of the fi ne wasps”