Re: translation exercise(s)

And then from my Pillans Primary School days you have :

The teacher lets the stylus down
And round and round the record goes.
Up comes a poet's thinking frown,
A poet's choosy nose.

"Oh children, can you hear me groan,
Your faces are all shiny new.
Once I was beautiful like you;
Now I'm a voice on the gramophone."

Poet unknown.

Wesley Parish


On Sun, 23 Jun 2002 12:37, J Y S Czhang wrote:
>     Inspired by the Impossibly Erudite John Cowan and his multilingual
> translation excercises, I present the following two (count 'em 2) short
> poems for you conlanging peeps to translate/interpret in your
> conlangs/natlangs (translate/interpret either one or both. Have fun ;)
>
>
>          Many Zeroes
>
> The teacher rises voiceless before a class
> Of pale, tight-lipped children.
> The blackboard behind him as black as the sky
> Light-years from the earth.
>
> It's the silence the teacher loves,
> The taste of the infinite in it.
> The stars like teeth marks on children's pencils.
> Listen to it, he says happily.
>
>                     ---- Charles Simic
>
>
>
>     Computer Map of the Early Universe
>
> We're made of stars. The scientific team
> Flashes a blue and green computer chart
> Of the universe across my TV screen
> To prove its theory with a work of art:
> Temperature shifts translated into waves
> Of color, numbers hidden in smooth lines.
> "At last we have a map of ancient Time"
> One scientist says, lost in a rapt gaze.
> I look at the bright model they've designed,
> The Big Bang's fury frozen into laws,
> Pleased to see it resembles a sonnet,
> A little frame of images and rhyme
> That tries to glitter brighter than its flaws
> And trick the truth into its starry net.
>
>                 ------ Maura Stanton
>
>
>
> Hanuman Zhang
>
> "the sloth is a chinese poet upsidedown" --- jack kerouac {1922-69}
> --------------------------------------------------
>
>     "There is no reason for the poet to be limited to words, and in fact
> the poet is most poetic when inventing languages. Hence the concept of the
> poet as 'language designer'."  - O. B. Hardison, Jr.
>
>     "La poésie date d' aujour d'hui."  (Poetry dates from today)
>     "La poésie est en jeu." (Poetry is in play)
>                 - Blaise Cendrars
--
Mau e ki, "He aha te mea nui?"
You ask, "What is the most important thing?"
Maku e ki, "He tangata, he tangata, he tangata."
I reply, "It is people, it is people, it is people."