Two translations of a poem by Jean Follain, a poet I’ve become infatuated with…which necessarily leads to fascination with the choices made by translators. Such seemingly small differences make, break or significantly change these precise poems’ meaning and aesthetics. See also: the original French and a third translation.
WORK
“The Egg”
The old woman wipes an egg
with her work apron
a heavy egg the colour of ivory
that no one else can claim
then she looks at the autumn
through the little skylight
and it’s like a delicate picture
confined to a single image
there is nothing
out of season
and the fragile egg
she holds in her palm
is the one new thing.
—Jean Follain (translated by Jennie Feldman and Stephen Romer)
—from Into the Deep Street: Seven Modern French Poets
“The Egg”
The old woman dried an egg
with her working apron
heavy egg the color of ivory
which nobody claims from her
then she looks at the autumn
through the little dormer
and it is like a fine painting
the size of a picture book
nothing is
out of season
and the fragile egg
that she holds in her palm
remains the one thing that is new.
—Jean Follain (translated by W. S. Merwin)
—from Transparence of the World
WORD
clamjamphrie (clanjamphrie, etc). noun. Rubbish; things or people of little value. Perhaps derived from “clam gentry,” people who wore clam shells as a badge.
“The devil is very powerful with all this wayfaring clanjamfray.” (Sir Walter Scott)
“Some of our old men yet recount, with much glee, the difficulties they encountered in keeping the land-loupers and other clamjamphrie that attended the fairs from getting the ascendency.” (Archibald M’Kay)
WEB
It seems newsletters of this sort are a hot new thing. I had no idea! Joanne McNeil’s article “Tiny Letters to the Web We Miss” muses about the mini-trend and links to some interesting examples of newsletters (and newsletter-based experiments/projects.)
As always, I welcome comments, suggestions, thoughts, feedback and all manner of what-have-you: clippings@katexic.com
