99 Poems in Translation

by Selected by Harold Pinter, Anthony Astbury, and Geoffrey Godbert

• ISBN13: 9780802134899
• ISBN10: 0802134890
• Format: Trade Paper
• Copyright: 1997-02-07
• Publisher: Grove Press

Summary

Full of surprising juxtapositions and possessed of a gargantuan range of voices and styles, 99 Poems in Translation is a unique convergence of some of the world’s most beautiful poetry. The poets range from Anna Akhmatova to Yuan Chen, from Charles Baudelaire to Virgil, each of them translated into memorable English by such poetic luminaries as Ben Johnson, Elizabeth Bishop, and Robert Graves. Arranged alphabetically, this collection span centuries and continents.

Table of Contents

I am not among those who left our land	p. 1
Amergin's Charm	p. 2
Song of the Fallen Deer	p. 3
Drinking	p. 4
Travelling in the Family	p. 5
Black Spring	p. 9
Psalm 137	p. 10
Song of Songs: 7	p. 12
The King of Connacht	p. 14
Piddle-padding race of critics, rhizome-fanciers	p. 15
The Mirabeau Bridge	p. 16
The Lilacs and the Roses	p. 18
The Albatross	p. 20
Antiquitez de Rome	p. 21
The Lark	p. 22
The Vulture	p. 23
War Has Been Given a Bad Name	p. 24
Freedom of Love	p. 25
A Learned Mistress	p. 28
Less pub than brothel, and you, the regulars	p. 29
The City	p. 30
Deathfugue	p. 31
White Suit	p. 33
The Rattle Bag	p. 34
Sonnet: Dante Alighieri to Guido Cavalcanti	p. 36
The Invention	p. 37
The Measures Taken	p. 38
The Prison	p. 39
Looking Back	p. 40
A Sad State of Freedom	p. 42
Tibullus, pull yourself together!	p. 44
The Stabat Mater	p. 45
Green	p. 48
We have amazed by our great sufferings	p. 49
The Seventh	p. 50
This coloured counterfeit that thou beholdest	p. 52
A Secret Kept	p. 53
Opposition	p. 54
We chant and enchant	p. 56
No	p. 57
For the book of Love	p. 58
Alma Perdida	p. 59
To Himself	p. 60
The Testament	p. 61
Shema	p. 63
The River Merchant's Wife: A Letter	p. 64
The Faithless Wife	p. 66
The Ephemeral Past	p. 68
A lace curtain self-destructs	p. 70
The Stalin Epigram	p. 71
Either get out of the house or conform to my tastes, woman	p. 72
What About You?	p. 74
Simplicity	p. 75
On the Painting of the Sistine Chapel	p. 76
Strophes	p. 77
Late in the Night	p. 79
Beauty Rohtraut	p. 81
Time topples Statyllios like a doddery oak	p. 83
Lone Gentleman	p. 84
The Mute Phenomena	p. 86
The Clock in the Old Jewish Ghetto	p. 87
Elegy 5	p. 88
End of the Questionnaire	p. 89
English Lessons	p. 90
In the terrible night, natural substance of all nights	p. 91
Whoso list to hunt, I know where is a hind	p. 93
Doing, a filthy pleasure is, and short	p. 94
On the Back of a Photograph	p. 95
A Mad Poem Addressed to my Nephews and Nieces	p. 96
He	p. 98
Pater Noster	p. 99
The Prophet	p. 101
Antico Inverno	p. 103
If you imagine	p. 104
Time and Again	p. 106
The Stolen Heart	p. 107
Search	p. 108
Came to me -	p. 109
Landscape of Screams	p. 110
Wake up. Day calls you	p. 112
He is More than a Hero	p. 114
Mongol Libation	p. 115
Hell	p. 116
All the planets in heaven, all the stars	p. 117
Rain and the Tyrants	p. 118
Woman	p. 119
I dreamed this dream and I still dream of it	p. 120
The Death of Adonis	p. 121
Summer	p. 123
I know the truth - give up all other truths!	p. 124
Easing My Heart	p. 125
Way	p. 126
Christmas	p. 127
Black Stone on Top of a White Stone	p. 129
In that cafe crowded with fools we stood	p. 130
The Ballad of Dead Ladies	p. 131
Copa: The Barmaid	p. 133
The Celestial Fire	p. 135
An Elegy	p. 136
Chronological list of poets	p. 138
Index of translators	p. 141
Index of first lines	p. 143
Acknowledgements	p. 146
Table of Contents provided by Blackwell. All Rights Reserved.