Saturday, August 26, 2006

Spin

Say what you like

the truth matters little

in the 21st Century

we're all going to hell anyway

religion will see to that.

Make hay while the sun shines

it's all that is left, we think,

at whoever's expense,

as long as it looks good,

who cares?

The deckchairs on the Titanic are sliding,

Nero is choking on the fumes.


6 comments:

RIC said...

Fine that you're in a poetic mood. Maybe not the best one, I think, but you are anyway.
I came by just to give you the piece of information I had promised. You seemed truly interested, so here it goes:

Selected Poems of Giuseppe Ungaretti
translated by Dr. Allen Mandelbaum
Book, 228 pages, Random House (?), January 1975, ISBN 0801408504

Giuseppe Ungaretti: Selected Poems (Bilingual)
translated by Andrew Frisardi
Paperback, 320 pages, Farrar Straus & Giroux, April 2004, ISBN 0374528926

I cannot tell you whether that very poem «La Madre» / «The Mother» is to be found in any one of them. Translators aren't that generous in the Net...
I think they're both easy to find.

Carpe diem (noctemque)!
Seize the day (and the night too)!

FletcherBeaver said...

This post is like the Mahogany ship...
Thanks for that info. I did investigate Giuseppe on the net, but only really managed to find scant info. I will head to my favourite book shop in town and see what they have.

RIC said...

You see? Well, at least you're not the kind of guy who throws away randomly... Lucky you!
Oh yes, the Mahogany ship! What a headache from going through I don't know how many books to find out it may only be a story. A fairy tale... (lol&lol)
If I may... instead of spending money in something you might happen not to like, why don't you try in the library? That Professor Mandelbaum is an intellectual celebrity all over the English speaking world. And I got the impression (don't know why though) that Frisardi is... Aussie! Awesome, isn't it!
You can find whole works of Kant or Plato in English on the net, but poetry? No way, Jose... Unless you pay... (And out of the blue these last sentences became a poem. I really must take care... As if I'd want to become a poet... Me? Never.)
Enjoy! And thank YOU!

RIC said...

Sorry, man, but I went through the poem again and... it's different (What else should I expect?) and it's better.
It's quite epigrammatical. I believe, seriously and no irony now, you would really enjoy reading Fernando Pessoa. Some of your short poems remind me so much of his own. Check him out on my blog (Friday, 24). Of course, I've posted English translations, thinking of you too. But the guy wrote in English as well, because he lived and went ot school in South Africa (beginning of the 20.th century). He's great, Chris, really a world poet (no, not because he's Portuguese).
Let me know, will you?

FletcherBeaver said...

I never throw anything away, but I had to take a few of my posts down because they wren't good and I didn't have the inclination to re-write them, at the time. The poem is different, it wasn't so good before. It's strange to be writing in front of other people, but good strange.
I shall read some Fernando Pessoa.

RIC said...

I'm glad about the «strange good».