When you translate poetry in particular, you're obliged to look at how the writer with whom you're working puts together words, sentences, phrases, the triple tension between the line of verse, the syntax and the sentence.
quote by Marilyn Hacker
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Related quotes
Essay
I wrote an essay
and was proud of my work
but I've forgotten now
the eloquent sentences I used
send me, sweet poetry
to the land I viewed
as a elaborated on the subject
and lost it all too soon
I must find the way
so I can feel it again
the pride in my voice
there was so much
sincerity, inside
the choice of words
phrases and hyphens
it was poetry and song
a convincing verse
pushing through a grade
a privilege and ability
NOW it's gone
poem by D.M.L. Catseye
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Vigorous writing is concise. A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts. This requires not that the writer make all his sentences short, or that he avoid all detail and treat his subjects only in outline, but that every word tell.
William Strunk, Jr in Elements of Style (1919)
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Words Of Some Sort
The balancing action of a few words wraps us in sin,
Sin has a way of telling others the whole secret.
The embroidery so sudden enacts the religious view and worship,
A word or two carried new meaning to the select.
A balance of words means new phrases and more sentences,
Sentences cause us to seep in thinking, more than you.
Those words are plentiful for the soul, in effect,
The affectionate soul marries to the other soul.
My acts are numbered by the absence of fondness
For words that encase a comprehension of some sort.
poem by Naveed Akram
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Our Differences With Poetry
You balance yourself on these lines as the sentence is clear,
It differed from all the worldly possessions to the eye
As each eye was indoctrinated, each eye blinked to the sight
Of the sentences that were temporary, always exact and narrow
As well as sounding a whole quiet exception.
The power of poetry is great, as I have seen you with my perception
As perceiving is all I do in the face of danger, the dangerous words
Are an enemy to my own poetry. Your poetry is not my poetry.
Rather it is an inclination to sour beliefs and irresolute structures,
I am for one cynical, and I am also afraid lest a man decide to act on my word
With difference, and betrayal.
So off with your poet-hood, and me my own route,
The guess of talking thoughts is upon us from the rear
And I am in doubt as to the position I am in.
I have no more argument. Enough.
poem by Naveed Akram
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Paperback Writer
(LennonMcCartney)
Paperback writer
Dear Sir or Madam, will you read my book?
It took me years to write, will you take a look?
It's based on a novel by a man named Lear
And I need a job, so I want to be a paperback writer
Paperback writer
It's the dirty story of a dirty man
And his clinging wife doesn't understand
His son is working for the Daily Mail
It's a steady job but he wants to be a paperback writer
Paperback writer
Paperback writer
It's a thousand pages, give or take a few
I'll be writing more in a week or two
I can make it longer if you like the style
I can change it round and I want to be a paperback writer
Paperback writer
If you really like it you can have the rights
It could make a million for you overnight
If you must return it, you can send it here
But I need a break and I want to be a paperback writer
Paperback writer
Paperback writer
Paperback writer, paperback writer
Paperback writer, paperback writer
Paperback writer, paperback writer
Paperback writer, paperback writer (fade out)
song performed by by Paul McCartney
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Sentence of All
Hunt a sentence this day to the next,
One can not find a finer one
Than the very joke I have reasoned with.
What is this joke? What is that joke?
I can not see anyone with flowers,
But I see everyone with words
And they differ: ever so much.
A sentence such as this is enough
And what is this humorous one?
It is the very subject and predicate of our souls -
“Sentences are written not said.”
poem by Naveed Akram
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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The Mood
I'll simply be out shopping,
or just going for a run,
when words and phrases hit me,
and a poem has begun.
Sentences and lots of words,
go running through my mind,
and i know if i dont write them down,
my thoughts leave me behind.
So quick hand me some paper!
Just please give me that pen!
If i do not write this down soon,
the words will go again.
poem by Holly Smith
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Poetry! ! Poetry! ! Poetry! !
Poetry! ! Poetry! ! Poetry! !
Why are we addicted to Poetry?
We Poets who write,
All day or all night,
That Poetry! ! Poetry! ! Poetry! !
There’s scarce a moment in time,
That thoughts don’t find words in rhyme,
To put into verse,
Whether better or worse,
In that Poetry! ! Poetry! ! Poetry! !
Why do we write all these Verses?
We must have better things to do,
But whatever we try,
And I don’t know why,
We write Poem upon Poem for you.
It’s funny how my style has changed,
It’s a Limerick today I’ve composed,
It wasn’t meant to be,
But it is ~ you can see,
Just Poetry! ! Poetry! ! Poetry! !
© Yisroel Yonatan Goldman [JGthepoet] - 26 January 2006
poem by Jonathan Goldman a.k.a JGthepoet
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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As I work with my words as medium
I want to be profound
Deep, deeper than what i
Can possible swim
But I have seen
The limitations
Of words as medium
Of my thoughts
How can I put the
Color red
Of an apple
In words
Or the scent
Of lavender
In syllables
Here you are
Reading me
And I do not want
To disappoint
You, my reader
I want to create
A world of sensations
For such is the
World of poetry
I have long wanted
You to feel
My sadness in
Letters
My loneliness
In a single
Letter
This
i
Or...... ............................... me...................................
I want you to listen
To me
In the hush of the wind
In syllables
I want you to
Read my joys
In my phrases
Sometimes
I have given
You sentences
stanzas
I want you to
Be at home
With my words
But these are
Just words
And I must
Have failed
In bringing
Back to life
Your senses
Hopelessly
They have long
been dead
words, words, words,
And
Even this whole
Poem
Is not enough
Let me try
Again
On some
Coming
Illustrations
Birds falling
Their wings clipped
Leaves blown
Detached from
Their stems
Trees threatened
About the news
Of the coming storms
Oh I am so sorry
Your senses are sleeping
poem by Ric S. Bastasa
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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What Is Poetry
What is poetry more than words
Thought into existence by a writer.
What is life than a mystery unspurred
No explanation seeming any righter.
What is death than sad feelings blurred
Friends’ burdens becoming not lighter.
What is love than adoration preferred
A bond constantly growing ever tighter.
What is pain than good feelings deterred
Emotions never growing any brighter.
Poetry is so much more words
Reflecting emotions felt by a writer.
poem by Brandon McConnell
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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But is it
Right down within the depths of me
there lies a vein of poetry
Wherein I find when I have leisure
words which are my greatest treasure.
Words with which I can fashion verse
some silken smooth and some perverse
Each one is chosen carefully
then put together artfully.
I find them raw and unrefined
then with the power of my mind.
I create intricate designs
of words that some idea defines.
A poet is an artisan
who follows carefully a plan
that’s handed down from days of yore.
Which many men have used before.
To create formal poetry
to demonstrate their artistry.
Perchance I sometimes get it right
in verses which I choose to write.
I can imagine nothing worse
for those of us who write in verse
Than poetry which does not scan
and lacks all structure, has no plan.
Just words which incoherently
are juxtaposed haphazardly
. Which critics now suppose to be
the future form of poetry.
22-Feb-08
poem by Ivor Or Ivor.e Hogg
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Big Speech
Sentences are big, small as well,
Their tailors stupidly work
And the tools split when words are built.
The tools are a spirit, a well-being, a promise,
The tools benefit us in soothing ways.
The sentences become a speech for the royal kings,
They think overall that they own them,
Giving work and problems, saving us, living with danger.
The intelligence of a wish is that of writing
And poetry.
Words spell what we know,
They always now keep magic
That the king sows deep in the land.
poem by Naveed Akram
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Pensive Poet
Algae, stones and fishes are noticed through transparent water
Swimming at deep of mind what colors do you smear?
You compose line of verse calculation like the pyramid
Various kinds of flower baskets to satisfy gods are in need
Like spider for hunting you weave net but by syntax
You cleave dew by words when sun cleaves by its flash
Sitting idle sun goes on thinking and draws brow of seven colors.
poem by Bongokobida Zakaria
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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But for a few phrases from his letters and an odd line or two of his verse, the poet walks gagged through his own biography.
quote by John Updike
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Poetry holds the veil
Poetry, like Joseph, draws a written veil across its face,
Poetry speaks from behind the shawl of its own intrigue.
My beloved would know my plight if he read my verse,
He would sense my pain if he heard my cries.
Poetry, like the brow of my beloved, it is a sea of beauty,
Fitting for those of vision to reflect upon.
Poetry, like Mount Sinai of Moses, has witnessed the divine,
Struck by his figure, it shattered into shards.
Poetry uncovers the cravings of an aggrieved people,
For the foolish lover, my book of verse is a vow of maddened love.
Poetry is revealed in the realm of truth,
Each line invokes a voice of an unseen world.
Ardent like the roses, Yahya, I am too immersed
When I recite verses about his well-formed physique.
poem by Yahya Dukagjini
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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A Poet Loses His Power For Poetry
A POET LOSES HIS POWER FOR POETRY
A poet loses his power for poetry
He can put down words
But they no longer have poetry in them
Something of the feeling of what real poetry is
is gone.
He strives
He writes again and again
He puts words down in the forms and in the shapes his poems usually take
But he has no poetry in him
He has lost what he is
And all he can do
is strive again and again
Word after word
Silence after silence
To hear within himself again
A voice he does not have.
The poet is writing poetry
And it is not poetry
The poet is dead
And he is pretending to be alive
Is this a poem?
Is he a poet
Is he dead?
Is he alive?
poem by Shalom Freedman
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Incantation
Human reason is beautiful and invincible.
No bars, no barbed wire, no pulping of books,
No sentence of banishment can prevail against it.
It establishes the universal ideas in language,
And guides our hand so we write Truth and Justice
With capital letters, lie and oppression with small.
It puts what should be above things as they are,
Is an enemy of despair and a friend of hope.
It does not know Jew from Greek or slave from master,
Giving us the estate of the world to manage.
It saves austere and transparent phrases
From the filthy discord of tortured words.
It says that everything is new under the sun,
Opens the congealed fist of the past.
Beautiful and very young are Philo-Sophia
And poetry, her ally in the service of the good.
As late as yesterday Nature celebrated their birth,
The news was brought to the mountains by a unicorn and an echo.
Their friendship will be glorious, their time has no limit.
Their enemies have delivered themselves to destruction.
poem by Czeslaw Milosz
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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My Poetry Has Become Prose
MY POETRY HAS BECOME PROSE
My Poetry has become Prose
I have lost my music
Nothing sings in me;
I have lost my richness of meaning
Nothing in me is not linear, flat and clear.
I have lost my poetry
And have become a writer of Prose
In pseudo Poetic Form-
There is in me no Line
That says more than itself-
I am Prose now not Poetry
And yet still secretly hoping
My inner irony will
In contradicting me
Save me.
poem by Shalom Freedman
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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My Funny Talk
My funny talk it gets me laughing much, each day,
when I try to talk, the words don't come right anyway;
The words are all mixed up, with words jumbled too,
like! getting jelly beans from my throat, oh phew.
My funny talk, I hope, won't get me in trouble,
cause sometimes the sentences are all in a muddle;
like saying I was in the piddle, instead of in the middle,
and I wanted to say fiddle as in violin, I said I played the biddle.
Yes! I can laugh at these things, I know I'm getting old,
But that's what life brings along, that's what I am told;
Life brings so many trials and funny things as well,
I wouldn't change a thing, my mind rings like a well, I mean Bell.
See the more I try to say a sentence, it ends in a stew,
to make life complicated, does it happen also to you?
But maybe I just make these things go down in a verse or 2,
and end in a funny poem, so it can be read by you.
poem by Margaret Haig
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Poetry Obsession
I have been writing poetry for just over a year;
That I love poetry, I guess, it's perfectly clear.
My output, to date, has been really quite prolific.
I feel pleased with my work, but it's not terrific.
Now is the time for me to make a confession:
For me, poetry has become a bit of an obsession!
Now I find that, sometimes when I speak,
My sentences unintentionally rhyme! Eeek!
My poems total over three hundred in number;
Sometimes, composing them affects my slumber.
Of my poetry, I admit I feel really rather proud,
But I feel way too shy to read them out aloud.
Often, when I'm out walking, or I'm sat on a train,
Ideas will manifest themselves deep in my brain.
I often find myself spending quite some time,
Pondering the two factors of rhythm and rhyme.
My poems all rhyme: I don't write in ‘free verse':
In unrhymed poetry, myself, I just can't immerse.
To me, poetry which rhymes seems more precise:
It has a better finish, and it just sounds, well, nice!
At my poems online, people have been gazing,
But I would disagree that my work is ‘amazing'.
From all over the world, I am quite often sent
From fellow poets, some encouraging comments.
I have chosen some of my poems to put in a book;
My local bookshop is selling it! Please take a look!
I was thrilled when they agreed to sell it in-store;
They sold the entire first batch, and asked for more!
My dream job is to become a really famous writer;
I know it's a tough journey, but I'm a real fighter.
For sitting, writing poetry, I would love to get paid:
Maybe, if I keep plodding onwards, I will one day!
poem by Angela Wybrow
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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