THOUGHTS ON TRANSLATING POETRY
Playing Bach can be faithful to the note
it can be looser Loussier or variations of the Variations
Early Glenn Gould frantic youthful
later thoughtful measured enriched by humming –
or not – say the purists
Is a poem lost
if you can hear the translator hum
or is the music still the same?
So many airs on a G string none wrong nor right
Miles Davis’ riff on Porgy’s song
another version though, not Willard White’s deep tones
So many poets have sung Achilles’ rage
as implacable ruinous or baneful wrath
transposing Homer through the ages
And Baudelaire whose Spleen results in many forms
Moore’s roi d’un pays pluvieux an ancient king a too-old king
a head of government ruling a rainy hell a flooded empire
Each voice unique springs from the same source
sings the same song in jazz or blues
Mood Indigo has many shades from Ellington to Monk
No mood no blues the same
Whether blue-eyed Frank or Nina Simone
Playing Bach faithful or way off beat
Playful remix of a familiar tune
New harmonies new voices
in a different time
