[Julie Steiner]

As the insect-themed 2014 Translation Bake-off approaches (exciting details here!), I thought it would be fun to start a related thread on this board, for insect-themed poems that do not require translation into English.

I'll kick things off with two citations in memory of departed Sphereans.

Some may disagree with my opinion that these two poems "do not require translation into modern English". Personally, though, I think they both make sense, with a little effort on the part of the reader.

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Today is the fifth anniversary of the funeral of M.A. Griffiths, whose username here was "grasshopper", although she also answered to "wordbug" and "The Insect" on other lists. One of her most celebrated poems, "The Pismire Oration", is insect-themed. The word pismire, from the Middle English pissemyre, was used by Chaucer in The Summoner’s Tale, and is apparently still used regionally to mean ‘ant’. The word derives from piss (‘urine’ – presumably inspired by the smell of formic acid secreted by ants) plus mire (‘ant’ – compare the Greek-derived myrmidon). Margaret also used the variant "pissant" in a different poem.

"The Pismire Oration" was published posthumously here, in Paul Stevens' broadsheet The Flea, accompanied by an audio file of Margaret reading her poem.

The name of Paul's publication was itself a tribute to another insect-themed poem--'The Flea' by John Donne--which Paul republished here; this, too, is accompanied by a lovely audio file. Paul died in March 2013.

Much ink has been spilt on the erotic and religious imagery of Donne's poem, so I'll resist the temptation to add to it. I would like to say a bit about "The Pismire Oration", though. It is widely regarded as an amphigory--a poem which appears to make sense, but, upon closer examination, doesn't. Although there's nothing wrong with amphigories, which can be quite delightful, I contend that this poem's whimsical wordplay is actually quite coherent, once you realize that the speaker is an ant.

In response to comment on The Pennine Poetry Works, Maz said:

Dear T—,

It’s great fun to play around with words – caterpillars do munge on leaves, don’t they?

This ant is clearly a fan of the Bard’s and was deeply affected by John of Gaunt’s speech. She may live near the Open Air Theatre in Regent’s Park.

It didn’t strike me before, but ‘liplap danglers’ is pure Rambling Syd Rumpo, isn’t it?

Kind regards,
grasshopper
[4 October 2003]

With the benefit of Maz's hint, I do indeed spot obvious similarities between this poem's third strophe and John of Gaunt’s speech in Shakespeare’s Richard II, which extols ‘This royal throne of kings, this sceptered isle...this other Eden, demi-paradise...this blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England...’

Margaret also mentions Rambling Syd Rumpo, who was a character of the English comedian Kenneth Williams, and a fixture of the BBC's 'Round the Horne' radio show (1965-1968). He lampooned the folk music revival going on at the time. His extensive repertoire, including ‘The Ballad of the Woggler’s Moulie’, used obscure or made-up words in suggestive contexts.

While commenting on someone else's poem in another workshop, Margaret also made this remark, which I like to think has relevance to this poem:

My father used to tell me wonderful stories about a kingdom of ants that lived under a giant oak tree – how I wish I could remember them.
[9 August 2004]

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I'm looking forward to others' contributions of insect-themed poems to this thread, and in the upcoming Translation Bake-Off.

You needn't attempt to compete with my verbosity here--good luck with that, if you do!--but in keeping with the name of this board, I do hope you'll include at least a little musing with poems posted to this thread.