[Duncan Gillies MacLaurin]

In the 1990s creative writing in EFL (English as a Froreign Language) was all the rage here in Denmark. But all the reports about this since insist that you have to be proficient in your mother tongue in order to be good at EFL. It seems that we use our mother tongue as a springboard for forays into foreign territory.

Duncan

[John Whitworth]

I don't know if anyone has considered the commonestform of second=language writing in English. I mean poets who wrote in both English and in Latin. The foremost example in Milton. My Latin is not up to saying how good his L:atin poems are, but scholar-critics whose Latin IS up to it say that his Latin poems are the equal of his English ones. The other sriter you migt consider is Samuel Becket who wrote 'Waiting for Godot' in French and then put it into English. At least I think that's what he did. In both cases you might say that the kind of English these men wrote is strongly affected by the other language that they know well. Jorge Luis Borges ised to translate his stories and poems into English. He did it with a collaborator but I don't think that was because hi English wasn't up to it. On the other hand, George Bernard Shaw said he had avoided learning another language because he thought it would have detrimental effects on his English. Not a poet of course, but a fine stylistin my opinion.

[Tim Murphy]

The two second language English writers I know best are Nabokov and Brodsky. I think Nabokov's Onegin is pretty bad, but that's because of his decisions as translator, not any deficiency in English. Lord knows his prose is dazzling. Brodsky's English poetry is pretty poor. Having no Russian, I can only say that his Russian poetry when translated by a poet as good as, say, Wilbur, is spectacular.

A VERY hostile reader once complained that the best poem in my first book is written in French, something I wouldn't even try these days.

[John Whitworth]

Tim, what do you think of Shade's poem in 'Pale Fire'? Some critics say it's supposed to be bad but actually I quite like it.

[R. S. Gwynn]

Shade's poem is very good, and it's clear that VN worked very hard on it. He said it was the most difficult writing task he'd ever taken on. Critics who say it's deliberately bad are full of it.

Tim! Rhina P. Espaillat?

I, by the way, write equally poorly in both English and Southern.

[Michael Juster]

I didn't know you wrote in English!!!

[Gregory Dowling]

Rhina, as I understand it, is completely bilingual - which essentially means that she learned both languages as a child and therefore neither language is a second language.

My children are also bilingual; although they both went through Italian schools they seem happy to read and write in either language; in fact, my younger son has started writing poetry - and only in English. Not sure why.

Italian is a second language for me, as I learned it as an adult. And although I am surrounded by it daily and use it all the time, I know I can never hope to write decent prose in Italian, let alone poetry. Byron talked a lot about his intention to write his best works in Italian, but he never got round to it - and I don't think he could have done.

Conrad and Nabokov are definite exceptions - and there's no denying that part of the fascination of their English prose is a certain exoticism.

I agree about the poetry in Pale Fire; I like it a lot. But while I don't want to discourage anyone from trying, I still think there are very few examples of really great poetry written in a second language.

[Janice D. Soderling]

Gregory has expressed my thoughts better than I could. (Thx.) Which doesn't stop me from continuing to blither some more.

The early writers who wrote in Latin were schooled in it from an early age and not all were as talented as Milton.

Conrad essentially gave up his original language as he was in an isolated setting (shipboard) where the language of communication was English. And he read copious amounts of English literature. (If I remember correctly.) I have friends who have forgotten their original language (when a minority language) because they never have a chance to use it and have completely absorbed Swedish. They tell me that they have forgotten large chunks of their vocabulary.

[Susan McLean]

I would not attempt to write poetry in any of the languages I have studied (French, Anglo-Saxon, and Latin), though I can remember writing a bit of French poetry in high school. But I did not receive very good or extensive instruction in the languages and have never spent much time in French-speaking countries, so I don't feel fluent in any of the languages. It was once part of regular instruction for people learning Latin to be taught how to write poetry in it. I am translating Latin poems by Sir Thomas More, for instance, and many of them were translated by him from the Greek Anthology.

Susan

[Julie Kane]

Charles Simic and Ha Jin both did not begin learning English until their mid-teen years--and both became superb English-language poets (Ha Jin is an even better novelist).