~ 2009 ~
Los Pobres by Roberto Sosa
Roberto Sosa is Honduras’ most famous living poet. This is one of several musical adaptations of his poems by the Honduran classic rock band Rajamadrex on YouTube. It’s a little unclear, but I’m guessing that the video itself was made by the band, or someone under their direction, and the captions were added much more recently by the YouTube poster, who goes by the handle Sanjeringas. Here’s the Spanish text along with my own translation.
| Los Pobres
Los pobres son muchos Seguramente Pueden Pero desconociendo sus tesoros Por eso |
The Poor
The poor are many: Doubtless They’re able But unaware of their gifts, they enter That’s why it’s impossible |
I did this translation 14 years ago as part of a chapbook I put together after a six-week visit to the country. I was in Honduras not just as a tourist but to attend my brother Mark’s wedding to a Honduran, my sister-in-law Luz, who is from the same small city as the just-deposed president, Mel Zelaya. The Honduran coup is therefore somewhat personal for me. Since Zelaya was deposed for siding with the poor and alienating large segments of the ruling elite, Sosa’s poem seems — sadly — as relevant as ever.
Night by Majid Naficy
Poem by Majid Naficy
Translation and video by Niloufar Talebi for The Translation Project DVD, Midnight Approaches
Letter From a Parasitic Head by Dana Guthrie Martin
Dana Guthrie Martin wrote the poem — see qarrtsiluni for the text — and Donna Kuhn collaborated with her to make the video.
By way of explanation, the poem begins with this epigraph:
Upon autopsy, the neck stump of the parasitic head was shown to contain fragments of bone and tiny vestiges of a heart and lungs.
— www.phreeque.com
Anorexic by Eavan Boland
http://youtu.be/R9QBXglFGZg
Poem by Eavan Boland
Film by Alia Victor
Actors: Savanna Grier (also narration) and Ryan Haber
Cinco Poemas Concretos (Five Concrete Poems) from Brazil
Curiously, a lack of Portuguese doesn’t seem much of a barrier to appreciating these fun word-art pieces. Brazilians invented concrete poetry, so it only seems fair to represent them here. The YouTube description says (I think): Audiovisual adaptations of the concrete poems “Cinco” by José Lino Grunewald (1964), “Velocidade” by Ronald Azeredo (1957), “Cidade” by Augusto de Campos (1963), “Pêndulo” by E.M. de Melo e Castro (1961/62), and “O Organismo” by Décio Pignatari (1960). Director: Christian Caselli.
Rain by Hone Tuwhare
Poem by Hone Tuwhare
Animation by (?) kiwimudcrab
Digging by Seamus Heaney
Poem by Seamus Heaney
Video from the BBC, according to the YouTube poster:
A montage of archive clips of Seamus Heaney “Digging”. From BBC NI’s “Seamus Heaney: A life in Pictures” broadcast 15/04/09.
At the Crossroads by David Bengtson
Poem by David Bengtson
Video by Media Mike Hazard (The Center for International Education) with a class of students at Long Prairie-Grey Eagle High School
Accordion: Juergen Brunkhorst
Tomorrow by Abbas Saffari
Translation and video by Niloufar Talebi for The Translation Project DVD, Midnight Approaches
Last year at the Orange County Poetry Festival, Talebi discussed the translation process using this poem as an example.
Aaj Bazar Mein by Faiz Ahmed Faiz
http://youtu.be/Ara199ZUiKQ
Poem and recitation by Faiz Ahmed Faiz
Video by umer05, whose description is worth quoting in full:
Faiz Ahmed Faiz is amongst the most famous poets of last century. Faiz, who was hounoured by Lenin Peace Prize in 1963, was seldom subjected to arrests by the right-wing pro-imperialist military regimes of Pakistan. Once, during the dictatorship of General Zia-ul-Haq, he was arrested and taken to the police station in front of the public. In this context, he wrote ‘Aaj Bazar mein’.
The video starts with a ‘mushairah’ (public recitation), where Faiz presents the poem, and describes its context. Then the video, with the melodious voice of Nayyara Noor in the background singing the verses of Faiz, shows the sufi culture of Pakistan, which was suppressed by the religious fundamentalist government of Zia-ul-Haq. Then, there are some clips of public floggings and public hangings of political dissidents, which were employed to ingrain terror in the people of Pakistan. Public floggings were a norm during Zia’s time. The video, then, takes us on a trip to a well-known red-light area of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. This red-light area is in the neighbourhood of a very famous mosque, a contradiction unresolved.
Úr órum Tobba (From the Madness of Tobbi) by Eiríkur Örn Norðdahl
Poem and reading by Eiríkur Örn Norðdahl
This is a sound-poem in homage to a 17th-century Icelandic nonsense poet called Æri-Tobbi, or Crazy Tobbi, whose poetry is discussed at length in a fascinating essay archived at Norðdahl’s blog: “Mind the Sound” (hat-tip: Poetry News).
The categorical difference between sound-poetry and instrumental-music (including sound-poetry’s cousin, scat-singing) is that the listener inevitably interprets what he or she hears as ‘language’ – not only is it the framework that the work is presented within, but it’s also inherent to much of the actual work, that it actually ‘resembles’ language. […]
In early 2008 I wrote the poem ‘Úr órum Tobba’, (trans. From the madness of Tobbi) a six-to-seven minute long sound-poem carved from Æri-Tobbi’s zaum. The poem was first performed at the Scream Poetry Festival in Toronto, at the Lexiconjury Revival Night, and has in fact not been performed since (although published on CD, along with more of my sound-poems).
‘Úr órum Tobba’ is at once a found poem and sound poem, collaged and cut-up lines of zaum taken from the quatrains, tercets and couplets of Æri-Tobbi – the first of the thirteen stanzas is written thus:
Axar sax og lævarar lax
Axar sax og lævarar lax
Hoppara boppara hoppara boppara
stagara jagara stagara jagara
Neglings steglings veglings steglings
Skögula gögula ögula skögula
hræfra flotið humra skotið
Axar sax og lævarar laxEach stanza has eight lines, and all are intersected with two of Æri-Tobbi’s most famous zaum-lines:
Agara gagara agara gagara
vambara þambara vambara þambara
