Ry Beville

Finally, with the New Year holiday I have time and quiet enough to start reading from my wonderful Christmas haul. Grabbed Olga Tokarczuk’s first—gripping so far, and an excellent translation by Lloyd-Jones. Seems to really capture tone, which is always the hardest part.

Recently read poet Jay Hopler’s Still Life, written after his terminal cancer diagnosis. Far from being somber, it’s a life-affirming, irreverent testament to the moments and things that matter most, including family. I also recommend his 2016 work, The Abridged History of Rainfall.

So few excel at both poetry and prose. Michael Ondaatje (of The English Patient fame) immediately comes to mind. Ben Lerner is another to remember. The Lights probes what dwells beyond our conscious knowing, illuminating it however briefly. Such striking, intelligent art.

I get a small but helpful payment every month for my Nakahara Chuya translation… but if you could purchase from the website (if you’re interested), rather than Amazon, that’s even more helpful! Thank you. brightwavemedia.com/product/chuy...

I’ve been too busy to bother posting these last few months but never too busy to read. My favorite book of poetry over this period was Brandon Som’s Tripas: Poems, which explores his Mexican and Chinese heritage. Compelling subject matter presented through engaging technique.

And, of course, I meant Robert Hass, not Robert Frost in that first post!

I'll remember this email my entire life.

To be clear, Corn’s translation is excellent and is generally how I approach translations; the ‘flaw’ is more a flaw of translation itself. When you strive to translate the multivalent aspects of poetic language, you often lose the tone and grace of the original. It draws attention to itself.

… And I think that’s probably why Mitchell’s 1982 translation of Rilke is still my gold standard, not only for Rilke or even German poetry, but for all of poetic translation really. He shows structural complexities, but also beautifully captures the tone of Rilke in language that reads as poetry.

…what I struggle with, too, as a translator is arguably one of the flaws. Unless you, as a reader, understand the original language, and/or there’s an explanation of some of the translation choices, the resulting target language can seem clunky or ‘translationese’ to a reader. It’s a fine line…

Two books, Selected Poetry of Rainer Maria Rilke by Stephen Mitchell and Rilke’s Duino Elegies by Alfred Corn.

Alfred Corn’s recent translation of Duino Elegies gives perhaps the most rigorous attempt to date at translation accuracy with Rilke, and in his introduction, he explains some of his decisions and innovations in detail. The attention to Rilke’s uncanny language is inspiring, but…

If you’re not incorporating kittens into it in some way, it’s not marketing. Kittens and diet tips.

Saw them last night in Berkeley and they were ridiculous.

Wow, it’s a part of official Phish lore! Hoppe is mentioned in the concert notes and by Google AI. I was at that show and would love to find a recording (and/or video). At the end, Trey let him announce their gig in Richmond later that night… The month prior, I had hired THC to play at my university

True story. And he was so big he needed to sit. But he was a great guitarist/vocalist. You can still find clips, recordings, etc of them online. At a Phish show once, Trey invited an audience member to sing a Rolling Stones song. It was him & Trey didn’t know. He blew everyone away with his vocals.

There was a good jam band in Richmond, VA in the late 90s called The Headstone Circus (THC) whose very fat lead guitarist died of heart complications. He was addicted to mayonnaise. Seriously. I hear his lyrics and snappy riffs whenever I see mayonnaise.

Boulder, Colorado had some fantastic bookstores, among them, Trident, which doubles as an excellent cafe. Picked up a copy Alfred Corn’s translation of Rilke’s Duino Elegies. One of the better versions out there. Stephen Mitchell’s 1982 is still my favorite—it still holds up, amazingly.

A latte flight at Cristo’s Coffee in Boulder, CO. What a great idea!

Enjoying with Hanna Pylväinen’s The End of Drum-time.

This is a grand idea. I’ve been wondering what to do with some of my memorable passes…

From Denver onward to Boulder, CO for the next @umphreys.com show! Who’s joining us? @jambandnews.bsky.social

99.99% of the time ヒント is mistranslated as hint and sounds unnatural.

And don’t translate ヒント as hint

A stack of books, from bottom to top: Obi Kaufman’s beautiful field guide, Deserts of California; Andrew Schelling’s Tracks Along the Left Coast; Janice Oberding’s The Big Book of California Ghost Stories; Mexican poetry translated by Samuel Beckett and edited by Octavia Paz; and the novel Carpentaria by Alexis Wright.

A modest but satisfying stack of books for Christmas. On breaks I steadfastly refuse to read anything even remotely related to my specialty. Well, I guess poetry in translation counts… I’ve been looking forward to reading Alexis Wright for some time.

Auster’s mammoth (866 pages) late novel has been the perfect long holiday read. I’d wanted to revisit him since he passed away earlier this year, and this was the right one for that reacquaintance. Such limpid prose and attention to mundane detail like the best realists. Pair with Roth readings.

If you know, you know… you know?

Interestingly, I’ve had a couple of groups in Japan asking me for permission to use some of my translations for AI-research and improvement. I appreciated that they at least asked… I wonder if there are legal reasons in Japan (will have to ask an IT lawyer I know).

I want what you want

In the afterword, Crane talks about working with Tranströmer’s wife on the manuscript as he recovered from a stroke. That’s incredible access for a translator. And yet, in many ways I’m still partial to the angular translations of the 1987 book. You should still read it if you like Tranströmer!

I somehow missed Crane’s translation coming out, probably because I’d just finished my PhD and was decompressing (it took a while), but recently picked it up and immersed myself in it. NYT Book Review calls it the best Tranströmer in English and it’s hard to argue with its clarity and quality.

Years later in grad school at Cal I got to study translation (and song lyric writing) under Hass, who was also my MA adviser on a thesis about a Japanese poet I was translating and researching. In his class, we got to talk about Tranströmer and look at this work in the context of translation again.