The Ecco Anthology of International Poetry

295 Pages·2010·18.54 MB·English

by  Ilya Kaminsky

THE e~~. ANTHOLOGY !! INTERNATIONAL POETRY
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EDITED BY
ILYA KAMINSKY
SUSAN HARRIS
e~t;. AND
WORDS WITHOUT BORDERS
OF
An Imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers
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CONTENTS
Acknowledgments . XXXI
Introduction by Ilya Kaminsky
XXXIII
RABINDRANATH TAGORE
On My Birthday • I
THE ECCO ANTHOLOGY OF INTERNATIONAL POETRY. Copyright © 2010 by Words
Without Borders. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States ofAmerica. No
CONSTANTINE P. CAVAFY
part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without
written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical The City • 2
Body, Remember • 3
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The Wandering Song . 6
FIRST EDITION
Designed by Mary Austin Speaker ELSE LASKER-SCHULER
In the Evening • 8
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available upon request.
ISBN 978-0-06-158324-7 PAUL VALERY
10 11 12 13 14 DIXIRRD 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 The Angel Handed Me a Book 8
~
ANTONIO MACHADO MOl SHE LEIB HALPERN
I Never Sought the Glory . 9 Man, That Ape . 33
Last Night, as I Was Sleeping . 9
from Moral Proverbs and Folksongs 10 BLAISE CENDRARS
Eyes . II White Suit . 34
RAINER MARIA RILKE GEORG TRAKL
Autumn Day . 12 A Romance to Night . 35
Sometimes a Man Stands Up During Supper 12 Grodek . 35
The Eighth Duino Elegy . 13
Orpheus. Eurydice. Hermes. . 15 GIUSEPPE UNGARETTI
In Memoriam . 36
MAX JACOB
Mystery ofthe Sky . 18 FERNANDO PESSOA
Ifthey want me to be a mystic, fine. I'm a mystic. . 37
GUILLAUME APOLLINAIRE
The Little Car . 18 GABRIELA MISTRAL
Hotel . 20 The Footprint . 38
Zone . 21
ANNA AKHMATOVA
ALEXANDER BLOK A Land Not Mine . 40
[Night. Street. Lamp. Drugstore.] 26 Requiem . 41
Northern Elegies . 49
JUAN RAMON JIMENEZ Our Own Land . 50
Oceans . 26
PIERRE REVERDY
FRANZ KAFKA The Book . 51
On Parables . 27 Fruit Bowl . 5I
Bottle . 5I
UMBERTO SABA
The Goat . 27 BORIS PASTERNAK
Wild Vines . 52
VELIMIR KHLEBNIKOV Sparrow Hills . 52
Incantation by Laughter . 28 For Anna Akhmatova . 53
A Wedding . 54
DINO CAMPANA
Journey to Montevideo 29 NELLY SACHS
Chorus ofthe Rescued . 55
GOTTFRIED BENN
This Is Bad . 30
Chopin . 31
* *
:II: CONTENTS k CONTENTS zi
OSIP MANDELSTAM YANKEV GLATSHTEYN
o
Lord, help me to live through this night­ 56 Mozart . 76
Take from my palms, to soothe your heart . 56 A Song . 76
Leningrad . 57
Pear blossom and cherry blossom aim at me . 58 TRISTAN TZARA
Through Kiev, through the streets ofthe monster . 58 Metal Coughdrops . 77
Your thin shoulders are for turning red under whips 59
The Stalin Epigram . 59 ANDRE BRETON
Free Union . 78
MARINA TSVETAEVA
from Poems for Moscow . 60 GERARDO DIEGO
from Poems to Czechia . 6r Julio Campal . 80
from Poems to Czechia . 62
from Poems for Blok . 62 EUGENIO MONTALE
from Poems for Akhmatova 63 Lemon Trees . 80
To Kiss a Forehead . 63 Xenia I . 82
To Conclude . 87
EDITH SODERGRAN In the Smoke . 87
On Foot I Wandered Through the Solar Systems . 64
The Trees ofMy Childhood . 64 FEDERICO GARCiA LORCA
The Little Mute Boy . 88
CESAR VALLEJO Farewell . 88
The Black Riders 65 Lament for Ignacio Sanchez Mejias 89
The anger that breaks a man down into boys . 65 City That Does Not Sleep . 96
Masses . 66 Rundown Church 97
There are days, there comes to me an exuberant, political hunger . 67 Little Infinite Poem . 99
A man walks by with a baguette on his shoulder . 68 Song ofthe Cuban Blacks . 99
from The Nine Monsters . 69
Today I like life much less . 70 GIACOMO NOVENTA
Black Stone Lying on a White Stone . 71 What's Beyond . 101
VLADIMIR MAYAKOVSKY BERTOLT BRECHT
Past One O'Clock . 72 I, the Survivor . 101
from The Cloud in Trousers . 72 Motto . 101
JORGE DE LIMA HENRI MICHAUX
Distribution of Poetry 74 from I Am Writing to You from a Far-offCountry
102
MITSUHARU KANEKO FRANCIS PONGE
Opposition . 75 The Pleasures ofthe Door
1°4
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xii CONTENTS *
CONTENTS xiii
~
JORGE LUIS BORGES
Since I Was Thrown Inside 124
Borges and I . 104 On Living . 126
Everything and Nothing . 105
RAFAEL ALBERTI
WEN I-TO Song 35 . 128
Perhaps . 107
CARLOS DRUMMOND DE ANDRADE
JACQUES PREVERT Seven-Sided Poem . 129
Barbara . 107 Don't Kill Yourself . 130
Infancy . 13 I
ROBERT DESNOS
Your Shoulders Hold Up the World . Ip
I've Dreamed ofYou So Much 109 Family Portrait . 13 2
In the Middle of the Road There Was a Stone
134
ALEKSANDER WAT
Before Breughe1 the Elder IIO JORGE CARRERA ANDRADE
The Guest . 135
GEORGE SEFERIS
from Mythistorema . I I I NICOLAS GUILLEN
Interlude ofJoy . I 12 Sensemaya (Chant for Killing a Snake)
135
TATSUJI MIYOSHI
RAYMOND QUENEAU
The Ground . I 13 The Human Species . 137
Great Aso . 114 IfYou Imagine . 138
VITESLAV NEZVAL
JEAN FOLLAIN
Woman in Plural . I 15 Face the Animal . 139
Music of Spheres . 140
MARIE LUISE KASCHNITZ
A Mirror . 140
Hiroshima . I I 7
EDVARD KOCBEK
SALVATORE QUASIMODO
Longing for Jail . 141
Only If Love Should Pierce You . I 18
And Suddenly It's Evening . I I 8 PABLO NERUDA
Body ofa Woman . 14
2
ROSE AUSLANDER
I Remember You as You Were 142
Motherland . I 19 Tonight I Can Write . 143
Nothing but Death . 144
NAzIM HIKMET
Walking Around . 146
Things I Didn't Know I Loved . I 19 Ode to My Socks . 147
Angina Pectoris . 123 Nothing More . 150
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xiv CONTENTS *
j CONTENTS :ltV
Too Many Names . ISO
YANNIS RITSOS

Keeping Still . 152
The Meaning ofSimplicity . 167

Wonder . 168

VLADIMIR HOLAN
Beauty . 168

May,1945 . 153
Audible and Inaudible . 169

]une,]uly, and August, 1945 IS 5

Resurrection . 156
MIKLOS RADNOTI

Postcard . 169

DANIIL KHARMS

The Beginning of a Beautiful Day (A Symphony) IS 7
ISRAEL EMIOT

A Prayer in Nineteen Forty-Three
170
ATTILA JOZSEF

The Seventh . 158
ANNA SWIR

She Does Not Remember
171
SANDRO PENNA
The First Madrigal . 171

Maybe I'm getting old, staying seated IS 9
The Second Madrigal . 172

A glass of milk and a piazza . 160
A Woman Talks to Her Thigh . 17
2

Look at the workers on the green field 160
A Conversation Through the Door . 175

The accused has only words . 160
from Building the Barricade: Building the Barricade, He Steals Furs,

A Woman Said to Her Neighbor, Two Hunchbacks,

LEOPOLDSEDARSENGHOR
He Was Lucky . 177

To New York, 3 . 161

Taga for Mbaye Dyab . 161
MIGUEL HERNANDEZ

Lullabies of the Onion . 177

GUNTER EICH

Inventory . 164
CZESLAW MILOSZ

Dedication . 180

RENE CHAR
A Song on the End of the World . 181

The Gods Are Back . 164
A Poor Christian Looks at the Ghetto . 182

Mittelbergheim . 183

CESARE PAVESE
Cafe . 184

Death will come and will have your eyes 164
A Gift . 185

Words from Confinement . 165
Winter . 186

And the City Stood in Its Brightness . 187

LEONARDO SINISGALLI
from Throughout Our Lands . 188

Dog Flies . 166
A Felicitous Life . 189

Old Grief . 166
from Bobo's Metamorphosis . 19
0

Via Velasca . 167
On the Other Side . 191

Incantation . 19
2

On Angels . 193

Bypassing rue Descartes . 194

..

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xvi CONTEN T S *
CONTEN T S xvii
KARL KROLOW
ODYSSEAS ELYTIS
All Day Long We Walked in the Fields Qyite a Lot of Luck 21 3

195

Unforeseen Events
214

HO CH'I-FANG
Get Drunk . 196
so CHONGJU
Self-portrait . 214

EDMOND JABES Elephants ofThailand 21 5

Dedication . 197

CAMILO JOSE CELA
MOUSHEGH ISH KHAN
from Mrs. Caldwell Speaks to Her Son: Chapter 112:

The Armenian Language Is the Home ofthe Armenian 8
The Clock Which Runs the City; Chapter 165:

19
Street Musicians . 2 16

AIME CESAIRE
Ex-voto for a Shipwreck . 198
BERNARD DADIE
Lagoonal Calendar . 200
IThank You God . 2I 8

All the Way from Akkad, from Elam, from Sumer 201

GLORIA FUERTES
ORHAN VELI KANIK Birds Nest . 219

Rumors . 202
Prayer . 220

Poem with a Tail . 203
Now . 221

Qyantitative . 203
I Write Poetry, Gentlemen! 222

My Gold-Toothed Beauty Autobiography . 222

2°3

JULIO CORTAzAR ZELDA
Theme for a Tapestry . 204
A Woman Who's Arrived at a Ripe Old Age 223

Progress and Retrogression . 204

JOHANNES BOBROWSKI
OCTAVIO PAZ Latvian Songs . 223

The Key ofWater . 205

Sight, Touch . 205
PRIMO LEVI
Flame, Speech . 207
August . 224
NICANOR PARRA ANNA KAMIENSKA
The Tablets . 208
Thanking . 225

AMan . 209
A Prayer That Will Be Answered 226

I Take Back Everything I've Said 210

PAUL CELAN
FAIZ AHMED FAIZ Memory of France . 227

YouTellUs What to Do . 2I I
Corona . 227

Before You Came . 2 I 2
Deathfugue . 228

* *
xviii CONTENTS ...
CONTEN T S xix
Zurich, the Stork Inn . 229 CHAIRIL ANWAR
There was earth inside them 230 Heaven . 248
I hear that the axe has flowered 23 1 Tuti's Ice Cream . 248
Psalm . 231
Tenebrae . 232 AUGUSTINHO NETO
Kinaxixi . 249
JoAo CABRAL DE MELO NETO
The Emptiness ofMan . 233 WISLAWA SZYMBORSKA
I Am Too Near . 250
TADEUSZ ROZEWICZ Letters of the Dea~ . 25 I
Who Is a Poet . 234 A Great Number . 252
A Sketch for a Modern Love Poem 235 The Joy ofWriting . 253
In Praise ofMy Sister . 254
TYMOTEUSZ KARPOWICZ Pieta . 255
A Lesson of Silence . 236 Under a Certain Little Star 255
Ecclesiastes . 236 Homecoming . 256
The Terrorist, He Watches 257
H. C. ARTMANN Children of the Epoch 25 8
An Optician Has a Glass Heart . 237 Hunger Camp atJaslo 259
ERICH FRIED YVES BONNEFOY
French Soldiers Mutiny-I91? 239 The Tree, the Lamp . 260
BLAGA DIMITROVA MIROSLAV HOLUB
Ars Poetica . 240 The Fly . 261
Man cursing the sea 262
VASKO POPA Zito the magician 263
St. Sava's Journey . 240 Cinderella . 264
Prayer to the Wolf Shepherd 241
WolfAncestry . 242 GERRIT KOUWENAAR
Wolf Eyes . 243 Elba . 265
Absolute Goal . 243
The Tenants ofthe Little Box 244 SADANAND REGE
The Craftsmen ofthe Little Box 245 Old Leaves from the Chinese Earth 266
Last News About the Little Box 245
ZAHRAD
MIRON BIALOSZEWSKI Cleaning Lentils 267
A Ballad of Going Down to the Store 246
ZBIGNIEW HERBERT
PIER PAOLO PASOLINI The Rain . 268
Prayer to My Mother . 247 Report from Paradise . 270
* *
xx CONTENTS CONTENTS xxi
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ROBERTO JUARROZ
Our Fear . 270

Hen . 272
from Ninth Vertical Poetry: Snow has turned the world into
Five Men . 272
a cemetery . 294

My Father . 274
Life Draws a Tree . 294

What Mr. Cogito Thinks About Hell 275
from Second Vertical Poetry: Each one goes however he can 296

The Envoy ofMr.Cogito . 276

ERNESTO CARDENAL
NINA CASSIAN "For Those Dead, Our Dead ..." . 297

Temptation . 277

AHMADSHAMLOU
CLARIBEL ALEGRIA Existence . 298

From the Bridge . 278

INGEBORG BACHMANN
YEHUDA AMICHAI
Every Day . 298

Yom Kippur . 281
The Respite . 299

I know a man . 282

Letter . 282
JAIME SABINES
A Man in His Life . 283
Pieces of Shadow . 300

A Pity. We Were Such a Good Invention 284

We Did It . 285
JEAN-PIERRE ROSNAY
Jerusalem Is Full ofUsed Jews . 285
Piazza San Marco . 301

My Mother Once Told Me . 286

A Dog After Love . 287
GUNTER GRASS
Love Song . 287
Happiness . 302

When I Banged My Head on the Door 28 7

A Letter of Recommendation . 288
KIM NAM-JO
The Diameter ofthe Bomb . 289
Foreign Flags . 302

Gifts of Love . 289

Tourist . 290
LUO FU
Song of Everlasting Regret . 303

PHILIPPE JACCOTTET
Distances . 291
HANSMAGNUSENZENSBERGER
last will and testament . 308

ANGEL GONZALEZ
Diatribe Against the Dead . 292
ENRIQUE LIHN
Whatever You Want . 292
Torture Chamber . 309

EUGEN GOMRINGER DAN PAGIS
Streets and Flowers . 293
Autobiography . 3I I

Picture Postcard from Our Youth 312

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xxii CONTENTS CONTENTS xxiii
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