Category Archives: Translations

Whirligig Jig

Posted on September 5, 2010 by Francois Lachance

Monique Wittig provides a hint of how to approach Djuna Barnes‘s short stories collection Spillway. Wittig insists on the role of sarcasm and irony in making manifest that which tends to pull in multiple and separate directions. In her forward … Continue reading →

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Orbiting the Obelized

Posted on July 6, 2010 by Francois Lachance

Epicurus On Happiness Letter to Menoeceus by Epicurus (341-270 B.C.) Translated by Robert Drew Hicks Who, then, is superior in your judgment to such a person? He holds a holy belief concerning the gods, and is altogether free from the … Continue reading →

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Sleeve Safe

Posted on May 26, 2010 by Francois Lachance

Don Coles, Forests of the Medieval World “Self-Portrait at 3.15 a.m.” descriptions of happiness must remain illegible Very apt to describe grass style calligraphy which apparently is a mistranslation that stuck — see cursive script entry on Wikipedia — concerns … Continue reading →

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Smut is Also a Word for Fungus, I Remember

Posted on May 2, 2010 by Francois Lachance

Yi Yŏn-ju “Dusk in Winter” Life’s end, does anyone really live beyond it? Let’s start again. Power of filthy memories. Collected in Anxiety of Words: Contemporary Poetry by Korean Women Ch’oe Sŭng-ja, Kim Hyesoon and Yi Yŏn-ju translated by Don … Continue reading →

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Uni Ennui

Posted on May 1, 2010 by Francois Lachance

Who could get bored with sea urchin? Not anyone in our household. The phrase combining Japanese (uni) and French (ennui) only came up as a suggested substitution game for the caterpillarbutterfly duo so prominent in this third section of Regarding … Continue reading →

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Defence and Defiance

Posted on April 26, 2010 by Francois Lachance

From Kerala to Korea Malayalam The poem is about chores and the treatment of fingernails and it offers a specifically woman’s perspective in its conclusion. “I Can’t Grow My Nails” by Vijila translated by Lekshmy Rajeev published in The Oxford … Continue reading →

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LIP GRAM

Posted on April 15, 2010 by Francois Lachance

Lipogram: a text in which a given letter or set of letters is deliberately left out (Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics) Absence Where As (Claude Cahun and the Unopened Book) by Nathanaël (Nathalie Stephens) preserves the French in its … Continue reading →

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Renga Signatures

Posted on March 30, 2010 by Francois Lachance

Autour de l’affaire Yasusada Those who cry foul over the Yasusada seem to feel that his imaginary life toys with historical veracity and authenticity of a profoundly painful event […] But in the stress given to the empirical they seem … Continue reading →

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Cock Tail

Posted on March 17, 2010 by Francois Lachance

Hung over: overindulged alcoholic poets as I have waded through two thick biographies: Poet Be Like God: Jack Spicer and the San Francisco Renaissance by Lewis Ellingham and Kevin Killian City Poet: The Life and Times of Frank O’Hara by … Continue reading →

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Pearls, Stars and Selves

Posted on March 12, 2010 by Francois Lachance

Lost selves found in symbol. Fadi Abou-Rihan upon reading the entry about Gwendolyn MacEwen’s translation of the Yannis Ritsos poem “Helen” suggested the play by Carole Fréchette Helen’s Necklace. The play has been translated by John Murrell. As the back … Continue reading →

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