Pierre Joris' Meanderings & mawqifs of poetry, poetics, translations y mas. Travelogue too.
by Pierre Joris ·
Alexandra Bentz – Mezzo-Sopran, Aribert Reimann aus Eingedunkelt für Alt-Solo, “Füll die Ödnis”
Here is the original poem followed by my translation:
Füll die Ödnis in die Augensäcke,
den Opferruf, die Salzflut,komm mit mir zu Atem
und drüber hinaus.
Shovel the void into the eyebags,
the sacrificecall, the saltflood,come with me to breath
and out beyond.
Tags: Alexandra BentzAribert ReimannPaul Celan
by Pierre Joris · Published November 18, 2008
by Pierre Joris · Published July 21, 2006
by Pierre Joris · Published January 29, 2018
Pierre Joris, born in Strasbourg, France in 1946, was raised in Luxembourg. Since age 18, he has moved between Europe, the Maghreb & the US & holds both Luxembourg & American citizenship. He has published over 80 books of poetry, essays, translations & anthologies — most recently Interglacial Narrows (Poems 1915-2021) & Always the Many, Never the One: Conversations In-between, with Florent Toniello, both from Contra Mundum Press. In 2020 his two final Paul Celan translations came out: Microliths They Are, Little Stones (Posthumous prose, from CMP) & The Collected Earlier Poetry (FSG). Forthcoming are: Paul Celan’s “Todesfuge” (Small Orange Import, 2023) & Diwan of Exiles: A Pierre Joris Reader (edited with Ariel Reznikoff, 2024). For a full list see the right column on this blog.
In 2011 Litteraria Pragensia, Charles University, Prague, published Pierre Joris: Cartographies of the In-between, edited by Peter Cockelbergh, with essays on Joris’ work by, among others, Mohammed Bennis, Charles Bernstein, Nicole Brossard, Clayton Eshleman, Allen Fisher, Christine Hume, Robert Kelly, Abdelwahab Meddeb, Jennifer Moxley, Jean Portante, Carrie Noland, Alice Notley, Marjorie Perloff & Nicole Peyrafitte (2011).
Other work includes the CD Routes, not Roots (with Munir Beken, oud; Mike Bisio, bass; Ben Chadabe, percussion; Mitch Elrod, guitar; Ta’wil Productions). With Jerome Rothenberg he edited Poems for the Millennium, vol. 1 & 2: The University of California Book of Modern & Postmodern Poetry, and with Habib. Tengour Poems for the Millennium, vol. 3: The University of California Book of North African Literature.
When not on the road, he lives in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, with his wife, multimedia praticienne Nicole Peyrafitte. A volume of their collaborative work, to be called Domopoetics, will be published in the near future.
More
“Conversations in the Pyrenees”
“An American Suite” (Poems) —Inpatient Press
“Arabia (not so) Deserta” : Essays on Maghrebi & Mashreqi Writing & Culture
“The Agony of I.B.” — A play. Editions PHI & TNL 2016
“The Book of U / Le livre des cormorans”
“Memory Rose Into Threshold Speech: The Collected Earlier Poetry of Paul Celan”
“Paul Celan, Microliths They Are, Little Stones”
“Exile is My Trade: A Habib Tengour Reader” edited & translated by Pierre Joris
“Meditations on the Stations of Mansur al-Hallaj”
“Paul Celan: The Meridian Final Version”—Drafts—Materials
“Pierre Joris: Cartographies of the In-Between” edited by Peter Cockelbergh
“The University of California Book of North African Literature”
4×1 : Works by Tristan Tzara, Rainer Maria Rilke, Jean-Pierre Duprey and Habib Tengour
PABLO PICASSO The Burial of the Count of Orgaz & Other Poems
Poasis (Selected Poems 1986-1999)
Poems for the Millennium 1 & 2
ppppp-Poems Performances Pieces Proses Plays Poetics by Kurt Schwitters
“Todesguge/Deathfugue”
“Interglacial Narrows (Poems 1915-2021)”
“Always the Many, Never the One: Conversations In-between, with Florent Toniello”
“A Voice Full of Cities: The Collected Essays of Robert Kelly.” Edited by Pierre Joris & Peter Cockelbergh
“Barzakh” (Poems 2000-2012)
“Fox-trails, -tales & -trots”
“Paul Celan: Breathturn into Timestead-The Collected Later Poetry.” Translated & with commentary by Pierre Joris. Farrar, Straus & Giroux
wondered if comments stick — Poo’s don’t
Thank you for this. I was listening to a lecture by Geoffrey Hill where among other things he discussed your and Michael Hamburger’s translation of “Weggebeizt vom”/”Etched away” – particularly on the subject of the “noem”. I don’t speak much German and don’t really understand the manifold complexities of translation, my only experience of it having been a little bit in my undergraduate studies, between French and English. But I love Celan’s poems so much, so thank you for all you have done with his work
Thanks for the good words, Clarissa, Would you know if by any chance Hill’s lecture was recorded or transcribed/published anywhere? I’d obviously love to see what he has to say.
You can find it in the list under this link: http://www.keble.ox.ac.uk/about/keble-podcasts
It is the 30 November 2010 Professor of Poetry Inaugural Lecture by Geoffrey Hill – so, nothing too recent! Very interesting though, and I got quite excited when he started talking about Celan 😉
Danke, dear Pierre.
Here’s something that I thought you and Nicole might be interested in:
http://icls.columbia.edu/events/page/panel_discussion_rose_and_fairouz
Alas, it’s too far from us–though, of course, ever too close. Perhaps a kind and generous friend can later on tell us what went on there… Who could refuse the call of violet tulips..?
Unhappily we’ll be out of town that day — or I would most certainly have gone. Both Antoon & Steinberg I have spent time with & like a lot…