I spent some time with Etc today (by R\u00c3\u00a9gis Bonvicino, tr Odile Cisneros). <\/p>\n
First time I read through this, not much registered. Short stanzas, a slow wordiness, dot dot dot<\/p>\n
Stating the obvious is sometimes helpful. <\/p>\n
A Brazilian poet. The shape on the page is 4 parts, all titled Etc. Each of the four is in two vertical sub parts separated by a dot. Each of those subparts is composed of three quatrains, for a total of 24 quatrains. The whole thing is doubled side-by-side, on the left in the original Portuguese and on the right in the translated English. So it is mathematically precise to that extent, nothing out of alignment. <\/p>\n
The lines within each quatrain are more irregular, sometimes with only one word (“tentava”), sometimes a longer stretch of several words. <\/p>\n
There is one word I do not understand and Google is no help and it is the same in the original as in the translation: sigdasys. <\/p>\n
There is one invented compound word “firetalk” that is the same in the original as in the translation. <\/p>\n
How much patience do I have? <\/p>\n
:::<\/p>\n
There is a lot of trying in the poem. “Tentava” appears five or six times. There is a lot of triggering series of words off an action. Feeling, pointing, trying, reaching, probing, beating, observing, competing. <\/p>\n
There is a stateliness stepping through this piece, a slowness. There is no stated “I” but the I seems to be doing the actions. <\/p>\n
There are animals, flowers, colors, weathers, spaces – prisons, walls, gardens. The poem opens with weapons. There is Art – Frank Lloyd Wright and a painter, Emil Nolde is mentioned twice. The poem closes with a horse in the sky and the final reference to Nolde.<\/p>\n
:::<\/p>\n
To engage with this poem, it would take further study. I don’t know what it would bring me. I don’t feel drawn to it very intensely. It does not seem engaged with the natural world, although it does seem engaged with the human world. I feel like there is a painting somewhere that I need to see to go forward with this poem. <\/p>\n
Not saying I will never return to it, but not seeing why I would, unless it is to play with a translator program. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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