Good morning, Bill,
And doubly thank you for sharing the Lipsitz: the poem is great and I've never heard of him. I love when this starts happening:
"The old methods, napalm,
mass slaughter,
would lead where
they usually led"
How true. Amichai made a great impression on me when i first discovered him, not least for this bomb poem, but he's worth a volume in his own right. May I recommend the Bloch/Mitchell? Mitchell also does a great job with Rilke in Ahead of All Parting, which has the German facing. Amichai is no atheist, but a bomb can make a person wonder.
Your posts are always thought-provoking, Bill, which life deserves more of.
OK, I'll randomly post a Seferis poem now, in Keeley and Sherrard's version:
"Interlude of Joy
That whole morning we were full of joy,
my God, how full of joy.
First, stone leaves and flowers shone
then the sun
a huge sun all thorns and so high in the sky.
A nymph collected our cares and hung them on the trees
a forest of Judas trees.
Young cupids and satyrs played there and sang
and you could see rose-colored limbs among the black laurels
flesh of little children.
The whole morning long we were full of joy;
the abyss a closed well
tapped by the tender hoof of a young faun.
Do you remember its laugh - how full of joy!
Then clouds rain and the wet earth,
you stopped laughing when you lay down in the hut
and opened your large eyes as you watched
the archangel practicing with a fiery sword -
'Inexplicable,' you said, 'inexplicable.
I don't understand people:
no matter how much they play with colors
they all remain pitch-black.'"
Cheers,
John
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