Prayer is translation. A man translates himself into a child asking for all there is in a language he has barely mastered.
quote by Leonard Cohen
Submitted by Veronica Serbanoiu
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The Language of Translation
What could be a better language than the language of translation
A white curtain on which
All our handiwork stands apart like dirt
All crimes are perpetrated in mother tongues
Which always contain a discourse on innocence
There are times
When translation is the only place that has a remnant of sorts
The sound of tyranny in the native tongue
Is killing sympathy!
(Translated from Hindi by Bharatbhooshan Tiwari)
poem by Asad Zaidi
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There is a certain age at which a child looks at you in all earnestness and delivers a long, pleased speech in all the true inflections of spoken English, but with not one recognizable syllable. There is no way you can tell the child that if language had been a melody, he had mastered it and done well, but that since it was in fact a sense, he had botched it utterly.
Annie Dillard in Pilgrim at Tinker Creek
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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The Eyes Of Truth
(curly m.c.)
.
The eyes of truth
Are always watching you.
Mongolian chant translation
Alsyn gazryn zeregleenn
Aduu shig mal shig torolzonoo khuoo
(translation:
In the distance the mirage stands out like
Horses and cattle.
Very glad to see my beloved son.
--- sandras whispers ---
Je me regarde
Je me sens
Je vois des enfants
Je suis enfant !
(translation:
I look at myself
I feel myself
I see the children
I am a child! )
song performed by by Enigma
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Star Of Bethleham
As a child I first met Christ
and prayed a child's prayer.
I grew
in wisdom,
wealth
and worldly ways,
but lost
that child's prayer.
As age infirms
I seek lost youth
in sky above;
and there
I find
that Eastern Star
my child's prayer;
REJOICE.
poem by Thomas Ruth
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Body language loud
translates inner silences
unique within crowd.
haiku by Jonathan Robin (13 March 2005)
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Poetry cannot be translated; and, therefore, it is the poets that preserve the languages; for we would not be at the trouble to learn a language if we could have all that is written in it just as well in a translation. But as the beauties of poetry cannot be preserved in any language except that in which it was originally written, we learn the language.
quote by Samuel Johnson
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Mass Communications
after learning
the english language
and having mastered
it so well
now you are on your
own
as a reporter
you have to learn
the language of the
masses again
you an alien
of the masses
must take back
that lost
appeal
i want to make this sound
like a poem
for you
but i know it won't
are you gonna
be poetic when doing
a reporting job?
about the mass killing
in ampatuan?
gee, i guess not
sorry.
poem by Ric S. Bastasa
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The Child In Us
(michael cretu)
.
Sanskrit chant translation
Harry brown [email protected]
(translation:
Who is of smiling face, bestower of all fortunes,
Whose hands are ready to rescue anyone from fear,
Who is adorned by various ornaments with precious stones )
Puer natus est nobis,
Et filius datus est nobis:
Cujus emperium super humerum... for to us a child is born,
To us a son is given:
And the government will be upon his
Shoulder..
Some day you came
And I knew you were the one
You were the rain, you were the sun
But I needed both, cause I needed you
.
You were the one
I was dreaming of all my life
When it is dark you are my light
But dont forget
Whos always our guide
.
It is the child in us
song performed by by Enigma
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Desire
Where true Love burns Desire is Love's pure flame;
It is the reflex of our earthly frame,
That takes its meaning from the nobler part,
And but translates the language of the heart.
poem by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
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For The Sake of My Child
The prayer tells me to ask for serenity to accept the things I cannot change.
My child watches and waits by my side.
The prayer tells me to ask for courage to change the things I can.
My child watches and waits by my side.
The prayer tells me to ask for wisdom to know the difference.
My child watches and waits by my side.
The actions I need to do for my recovery are just too hard today.
My child watches and waits by my side.
The time I pity myself and doubt if anyone really understands is plenty.
My child watches and waits by my side.
The hands on the clock do not stop for me to catch my breath.
Not even for the sake of my child.
poem by Todd M Davidson
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Esperanto Despair
Imagine my despair,
on emerging from four-year,
self-imposed exile
to find the language
I had mastered
was now obsolete!
poem by Fred Barton
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Poets Lost In Translation
several differing translations
of some masterpiece poems
written by immortal poets
timeless especially esteemed
written in foreign languages
stresses how much poetry
suffers lost in translation
it is the hardest literary
medium to translate due
to the multiple meanings
of some words choice chosen
in the original mother language
the wonderful poetic effects
linking such words achieves
resonates in receptive souls
Is a good translation only
achieved when the translator
is a poet with a mother tongue
knowledge of both languages
in use vibrating admiration?
Is an intimate knowledge
a unique empathic sensitivity
for chosen poet in translation
a prime necessity in translating
feelings emotions ideals writ?
poem by Terence George Craddock
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Translation is an interestingly different way to be involved both with poetry and with the language that I've found myself living in much of the time. I think the two feed each other.
quote by Marilyn Hacker
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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White... Quiet
The day of her funeral
they came in their thousands
to bless her final rest
snowflake upon snowflake
falling into the empty endless grave
as if prayer
upon prayer
until all was white...quiet.
No people ever came
then...& now.
As a child
she held the treasure
of the first snowflakes falling
one by one
resting on her eyelids
(her mind blossoming
into awe & wonder)
tasting them upon her tongue
as if the sky was shedding itself
the snowflakes came
in their thousands
erasing the language
of the landscape
like a child's drawing
all things dressed in white
all things held in silence.
The day of her funeral
they came in their thousands
snowflake upon snowflake
untill all
was white
...quiet.
poem by Dónall Dempsey
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Four Deaths
Four deaths are greater than one,
On return there presents a win,
A win can count much too much,
Mastered by the loneliness of rich,
Heavier than the prayer been.
poem by Naveed Akram
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Man still is just man
When man mastered
the horse and chariot,
and later build cars
to drive over the earth
it made him no god
over it
and still he lacked
the knowledge
of how to make
out of nothing and a void
sand, pebbles and rock.
When man felled a tree
and build a boat
to float on the river
and the sea
and later constructed ships
and submarines
and mastered the art of sailing
he still was just man
and storms, huge waves
and water could still kill him.
When man mastered the art
of flying by machines
and could travel in the sky,
planes could still dropp and crash
and man was still bound
by the laws of nature.
When man mastered fire, steam, fuel,
electricity and nuclear power
and could harness it
at his choice
and reached into space,
he still stayed human
and a spec in the universe.
poem by Gert Strydom
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A Prayer For Everyone
Every child deserves love
A safe place to run and play
Every man deserves a chance
To bring home a decent pay
Every race is equal
Beloved in God's eyes
When I see discrimination my soul cries
Say a prayer for the lonely
A prayer for the confused
Say a prayer if you'd only
For the secretly abused
Say a prayer for the newborn
With all the battles to be won
Say a prayer for the tired and worn
Say a prayer for everyone
Walk a mile with a stranger
Put yourself in his shoes
Lend a hand to an old one
Good will come to you
In our heads were happy
We go our merry way
In our hearts were all afraid of our dying day
Every child deserves love
A safe place to run and play
Every woman deserves a chance
To bring home a decent pay
song performed by by Belinda Carlisle
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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A translation is no translation, he said, unless it will give you the music of a poem along with the words of it.
quote by John Millington Synge
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Taludoy
he last saw me when i was
four years old, barely able to walk from
a rare disease,
he was father's side kick
in the farm where flood rises
and they would have to use
boats to plant the rice.
he couldn't believe how i have become
so unlike of myself as a boy,
i have a big body now, and speaks
too fluently their own language,
father spoke their language
from the heart
but he was so cruel then
beating him with
a bamboo stick,
he did not cry though as
expected from a brave brown native
of the subanen tribe
known for their resilience.
Uncle Peping wants him evicted
and he has nowhere to go
only this land that his father
entrusted to him as a tenant
of the third generation.
i said he cannot leave just like that
there is a law
between us, from where i started as
a boy with a sense of
charity and
indebtedness of the past.
He taught me how to ride
the buffalo and
then he let me go fall
into the river
and swim
all by myself, alone unafraid
about the mythical
child-eating crocodile.
Now his life in in my hands.
And i must not
fail this time.
poem by Ric S. Bastasa
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The best thing on translation was said by Cervantes: translation is the other side of a tapestry.
quote by Leonardo Sciascia
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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