V---2nd Coral/: Gottfried Benn

[rich]

speaking of Calasso, I'd recommend Ka.  Hindu God stories. quite
trippy if memory serves

rich

On Wed, Jan 5, 2011 at 1:46 PM, Mark Kohut <markekohut at yahoo.com> wrote:
> No translation yet, but it looks like Kai and Ian hit it like a rock.....
>
>  Roberto Calasso- 2001 - 290 pages - Preview
>
> Benn was forever overturning categories in the minds of many of his readers. How
> can one be regressive and classical at the same time? How can one be algae or a
> jellyfish and at the same time the capital of a column? ...
>  books.google.com - More editions- Add to My Library▼-  In My Library: Change▼
>        * Facing fascism and confronting the past: German women writers from ... - Page
> 34
>  Elke Frederiksen, Martha Kaarsberg Wallach- 2000 - 320 pages - Preview
>
> regression. To paraphrase Nietzsche, who was so important for Benn, it is the
> heart that drives the head to "go under" (Untergang) in a gesture of "going over
> " (Ubergang), that allows one to transcend one's humanity. ...
>
>
>
> http://books.google.com/books?id=32yURfFuCr4C&pg=PA183&dq=Regressiv+%2B+Benn&hl=en&ei=DbokTYGvGIbGlQfIqdHrAQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCMQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=Regressiv%20%2B%20Benn&f=false
>
>
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----
> From: Ian Livingston <igrlivingston at gmail.com>
> To: Kai Frederik Lorentzen <lorentzen at hotmail.de>
> Cc: pynchon -l <pynchon-l at waste.org>
> Sent: Wed, January 5, 2011 11:04:17 AM
> Subject: Re: V---2nd Coral/: Gottfried Benn
>
> I agree completely that poetry does not translate well. Too much is
> lost. There is so much in German I wish I could read that I am certain
> there is not enough time, given a normal lifespan, for me to learn the
> language and read it all. Too late a start. Still, I do hope to get
> some in before my rocket reaches its terminus.
> Meanwhile, I'll look for the translations, as I did with Rilke,
> Goethe, Nietzsche, Feuerbach, and those others.
>
> 2011/1/5 Kai Frederik Lorentzen <lorentzen at hotmail.de>:
>>
>> On 04.01.2011 18:17, Ian Livingston wrote:
>>>
>>> Although coral seems to cross
>>> the line and be a little of each, as it builds its own inanimate
>>> structures from its animate functions.
>>
>>
>>
>> The poet Gottfried Benn saw that too.
>>
>> I'll type down for you one of his most famous poems plus a strophe from an
>> even more famous
>> poem. You won't have any problems to find (perhaps even online)
>> translations, that will give you an
>> idea. But then again it's not possible to translate poems in a proper way
>> ...
>>
>> REGRESSIV [1927]
>>
>> Ach, nicht in dir, nicht in Gestalten
>> der Liebe, in des Kindes Blut,
>> in keinem Wort, in keinem Walten
>> ist etwas, wo dein Dunkel ruht.
>>
>> Götter und Tiere --- alles Faxen.
>> Schöpfer und Schieber, ich und du ---
>> Bruch, Katafalk, von Muscheln wachsen
>> die Augen zu.
>>
>> nur manchmal dämmert's: in Gerüchen
>> vom Strand, KORALLENKOLORIT [my italics],
>> in Spaltungen, in Niederbrüchen
>> hebst du der Nacht das schwere Lid:
>>
>> am Horizont die Schleierfähre,
>> stygische Blüten, Schlaf und Mohn,
>> die Träne wühlt sich in die Meere ---
>> dir: thalassale Regression.
>>
>> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>>
>> BLAUE STUNDE [1950]
>>
>> (...)
>>
>> Du bist so weiß, man denkt, du wirst zerfallen
>> vor lauter Schnee, vor lauter Blütenlos,
>> totweiße [sic!] Rosen Glied für Glied --- KORALLEN [my italics]
>> nur auf den Lippen, schwer und wundengroß.
>>
>> (...)
>>
>> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>>
>> KFL
>>
>>
>
>
>
> --
> "liber enim librum aperit."
>
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>