Not bad suggestions, Andrew. One thing that obviously contributed to Glück‘s being chosen is that what poems I’ve seen of hers are staggeringly easy to translate. No toughies there. Why? Because she doesn’t really exploit her own American English. Scant music, little feel for exactitude in sonics (though some); it’s almost all in “imagery” and message without massage; imagery alone, ideas alone, can only get one so far. Suppose one doesn’t ride with the image or the message, what’s left? There are European poets whose message I don’t care for, but whose technique I can learn from. Too many first person pronouns in this post—I expect a typhoon of disagreements, but there it is. She brings me no joy, or not enough to get me onto the bus.
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