Comments on: Hungary: Don’t Look Away

By: jason kenny

jason kenny — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 05:46:54 +0000

Personally I would put a lovely bench so all the squirrels could use it and maybe add a mini bar and a Jacuzzi at a later date just for the wildlife though!

By: Susan Bernstein

Susan Bernstein — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 15:36:05 +0000

Actually it would have to be “he” leaps up, still — in this context.
In isolation, the German phrase, “der springt noch auf,” could be pedestrian – he jumps to his feet again. In the poem, followed by “a voice said above me,” it has a kind of eery ambivalence. On the one hand, it suggests a promise of resurrection: he will rise again. But it also sounds like an unnerved German soldier looking down into the mass grave: “Look, that one is jumping up again!!”

By: Forrest Gander

Forrest Gander — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 12:19:28 +0000

The line with German– Der springt noch auf, a voice said above me–
would, says German scholar Susan Bernstein, literally be:
he/she still jumps up, a voice said above me.
Or:
Still he springs to his feet
He leaps up still
He still springs forth or up (like the Rhine in Holderlin’s poem)
And she notes that springen– spring up, leap up, jump to one’s feet–
is related to Ursprung– origin.

By: Steve

Steve — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 01:46:29 +0000

To my surprise, I’d take– as a poem in English (I don’t know any Hungarian)– the first of the versions above, the one with pentameter, end rhyme, and Frederick Turner (!) attached. I’m not sure the others gather to themselves enough to make up for what they give up in rhythmic effects, and I’m not sure they sound any more idiomatic than the first. It’s a haunting poem…
Ten years ago I saw a remarkable anthology of modern Hungarians in English translation, assembled, I think, by Wm Jay Smith– anyone else seen it?

By: Ted

Ted — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 22:08:53 +0000

Forrest–thanks for this post. I agree w/ you 110% (to use football math) on the Joris/Rothenberg anthology. Do you have an apt translation for the German? The babelish doesn’t seem right–what a shock! –Ted