Sunday April 30th

Sunday 4/30/06

While I am on the subject of Poets and Writers, I noticed a quote in it by Christian Wiman, editor of Poetry Magazine, that he thought the April translation issue was the best issue since he has been editor. It was a fine issue, but in National Poetry Month it was disappointing to me that he could not have celebrated the best in American poetry and saved the translation issue until later.

Translations have always been a thorny issue for me. On the one hand, we should see the best that writers in other languages are producing, but the downside is that a translated version is always going to lack something from the original.  The translator will often have to choose between the music and the meaning of the work. Personally, I think the music is the more important, but I understand others may not agree.

I was reading Mojo this morning, a British music magazine, and was pleased to see that number one in their  top 50 contemporary classic albums produced since the launch of the magazine 150 issues ago was Jeff Buckley’s Grace. Buckley father (Tim) and son are favorites of mine and it is so tragic that both died young.

I never did quite get round to uprooting the poor trees yesterday. Those that know me will understand. I’d have a doctorate in procrastination if only I could get round to writing the thesis. Today I am not really in the mood for yard work but who knows.