Leaping Poetry: An Idea With Poems and Translations

Rating:
Summary: Learn the definition of "Dragonsmoke".
Review: 'In ancient times, in the "time of inspiration", the poet flew from one world to another, "riding on dragons".... They dragged behind them long tails of dragonsmoke.... This dragonsmoke means that a leap has taken place in the poem. In many ancient works of art we notice a long floating leap at the center of a work. That leap can be described as a leap from the conscious to the unconscious and back again, a leap from the known part of the mind to the unknown part and back to the known.'

So begins one of the most fascinating books I have read in the past several years. Robert Bly gives us his wonderful idea about "leaping", surreal poetry and pays homage to the modern masters of this method, largely Spanish poets such as Neruda, Lorca and Vallejo. Involved in this idea are the concepts of Wild Association and the presence of three brains involved in a complex relationship within the human mind.

After this book, you will never look at art, any art, the same way again.

Rating:
Summary: Learn the definition of "Dragonsmoke".
Review: 'In ancient times, in the "time of inspiration", the poet flew from one world to another, "riding on dragons".... They dragged behind them long tails of dragonsmoke.... This dragonsmoke means that a leap has taken place in the poem. In many ancient works of art we notice a long floating leap at the center of a work. That leap can be described as a leap from the conscious to the unconscious and back again, a leap from the known part of the mind to the unknown part and back to the known.'

So begins one of the most fascinating books I have read in the past several years. Robert Bly gives us his wonderful idea about "leaping", surreal poetry and pays homage to the modern masters of this method, largely Spanish poets such as Neruda, Lorca and Vallejo. Involved in this idea are the concepts of Wild Association and the presence of three brains involved in a complex relationship within the human mind.

After this book, you will never look at art, any art, the same way again.

Rating:
Summary: Duende and emotion
Review: Bly's explication of Leaping Images and Duende is fantastic. But how can one translate Duende? It's not simply the images, it's also the vowel sounds. Emotion is expressed in the vowel sounds as Pasty Rodenburg explains in The Actor Speaks. Spanish has Duende partly because the words' meanings and sounds allow for this; it's just like Bel Canto being best suited for Italian and The Requiem best suited for German. When translating Spanish, you either get the images or the sound, but rarely both together.

Here is an english speaking Duende poem that I wrote, but when the images break down (ie they are hard to understand, it's partly because it's the vowel sound that wants to come through). For Duende to succeed for the reader, you must have both.



Rating:
Summary: Duende and emotion
Review: Bly's explication of Leaping Images and Duende is fantastic. But how can one translate Duende? It's not simply the images, it's also the vowel sounds. Emotion is expressed in the vowel sounds as Pasty Rodenburg explains in The Actor Speaks. Spanish has Duende partly because the words' meanings and sounds allow for this; it's just like Bel Canto being best suited for Italian and The Requiem best suited for German. When translating Spanish, you either get the images or the sound, but rarely both together.

Here is an english speaking Duende poem that I wrote, but when the images break down (ie they are hard to understand, it's partly because it's the vowel sound that wants to come through). For Duende to succeed for the reader, you must have both.

Pastoral Elegy

I rode to Blood Farm with my mother to gather the lambs. We held them in our arms the size of rocks, heavy as oblongs. When I inquired as to how they killed the animals, she told me they shot them, once, with a gun. But these rifles were only imagined, as no one in my family could say they saw one of our lambs shot. She explained the cycle of life and the dependence we have. Outside, I studied, Gabriel, our ram who mounted ewes in diagolal like a freequented bookshelf on a case. She collected me in winter for the birthing of two lambs, but the snows disauaded the second one from stand. So near the piano, mother lifted the weight on the metronome and unfolded: "But for the Lamb of Jesus." I dissented with whole notes in alto until she harmonized soprano to teach a duet. How I marveled at the red & blue balls, the silken sack: the plecenta distending winter on the rail of a standing-stall.