I want to sleep the sleep of the apples,
I want to get far away from the busyness of the cemeteries.
I want to sleep the sleep of that child
who longed to cut his heart open far out at sea.
I don't want them to tell me again how the corpse keeps all its blood,
how the decaying mouth goes on begging for water.
I'd rather not hear about the torture sessions the grass arranges for
nor about how the moon does all its work before dawn
with its snakelike nose.
I want to sleep for half a second,
a second, a minute, a century,
but I want everyone to know that I am still alive,
that I have a golden manger inside my lips,
that I am the little friend of the west wind,
that I am the elephantine shadow of my own tears.
When it's dawn just throw some sort of cloth over me
because I know dawn will toss fistfuls of ants at me,
and pour a little hard water over my shoes
so that the scorpion claws of the dawn will slip off.
Because I want to sleep the sleep of the apples,
and learn a mournful song that will clean all earth away from me,
because I want to live with that shadowy child
who longed to cut his heart open far out at sea.
Notes
Translated by Robert Bly
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something lost in translation
Just reading reviews for First Loves by Carmela Ciuraru, which profiles how people fell in love with poetry. One quote was from Mary Doty: "Gacela of the Dark Death,"--"a dark and fragrant rosary which held the authority and resonance of a prayer." Seek various translations of this poem. The pleasure is combining the images that work best for you. For example, line 7 seemed odd, almost too harsh, so, in another translation I found, "I do not want to be told what martyrdom grass offers"; line 15 I liked as Bly translated, as opposed to the translation, "I am the boundless shadow of my tears". I also tend to agree with other translations that have "dark" as opposed to "shadowy" child (line 22)because it better suits the "Dark Death" image proposed in the title of the poem. In reading lines 16-19, again, the flow seems choppy. -
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Unless the poet is multi-lingual there will always be problems with transalations as all languages have different meanings for many single words and a translator is forced to pick the one he/she thinks right. It is often hard to interpret a poet's meaning when we speak the same language. How much more difficult it must be for a translator.
However when they do pick words and meanings it is to give their version of what the poet is thinking about throughout the whole poem.
It would be folly and arrogance on our part to pick and choose lines from a variety of translations.
Jim -
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To each their own
Respectfully disagree. Some lines are just more musical or better crafted via translations than others. "Folly and arrogance" is a bit strong. The reward is in the seeking out a poem's meaning. We, as readers, do the same with critical analysis. There is a plethora of insights on many poets/poems...and it is up to the reader to decide what rings true for them.
Supposedly, Lorca's poems are viewed as a superior challenge to translators because his works are so intricate to the ballads, customs, and lores of his country. Background information like this only comes from searching--and in making a decision: to be a casual reader, or to seek the "more". I stand by what I wrote before--by seeking a variety of translations, to me, is not "folly and arrogance", but an attempt to better understand the poem and its direction.
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I apologise if my message was seen as a criticism of you. What I intended to say was that for someone like ME to gather a number of different translations and then pick lines from each and put them together as a full poem would be folly.
Of course you, me and anyone can view various translations and choose which we think is best at any given point.
However that just adds to what I was trying to say. Only te original poet knows which translation truly reflects his/her own intentions.
Once again my apologies if you feel I have slighted you but my comment was intended to refer to the posting of a composite poem and passing it off as a full translation. The use of the word our referred to oldpoetry workers not to readers.
Jim
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apples to me are something eternal and good, desirable and fresh-smelling through the winter, restful and round, something classic that houses seeds for another life.
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Very interesting, but I wonder what "I want to sleep the sleep of the apples" means??
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Why disect it? Lorca is a giant!
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This is amazing. I am curious to know what "apples" means in all this, it is a metaphor I can't dissect.
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