Nobel Prize in Literature 2020

[lucasdiniz]

Lucas, have you ever taken a look at Mary Oliver? Her language is very simple but her message is profound, and her poetry, I sometimes think, is just one of those things that helps me live.

A comprehensive volume of her collected poems, Devotions, is available in hardback but is coming out in a couple of weeks as a more affordable paperback (same cover)! If you want to read more poetry but remain unsure which poet to pick up next, I humbly suggest that you at least take a look at Mary Oliver!

Let me know how you end up liking her (or not), hehe.

I will make sure to check her out. Thank you for the recommendation, Liam.

 

[Bagharu]

After reading Glück, I've been reading some poetry these few days, read The Deleted World by Tomas Tranströmer and Monologue of A Dog by Wislawa Szymborska, and I am loving all of them, one five star after another, and last night, because Liam speaks so fondly about Mary Oliver, read her Red Bird, the poem not the collection, before falling asleep. I loved it so much that I ended up seeing lots of red birds in my dreams! I don't know how the whole collection fares, but will continue reading the book.

 

[Bagharu]

I'm not very familiar with any poet, be it Brazilian or foreign. Because of that, I also feel like I can't make any judgment about Glück's poetry too.

Oh, I am having the same thing, besides Bengali poets, Pablo Neruda and some very few other poets here and there, I have never read a whole collection by any foreign poets before. So, now that I am reading some, I am amazed with each of them, and having this weird unsettled feeling whether I am understanding them correctly. But I am also not allowing this feeling to grow, because one thing I'm sure about is that these poems are working wonders inside my mind, and that is one wonderful feeling to have (let 'You wonderful you' play in the background)

 

[Bartleby]

I’ve only read Firstborn so far, and well I liked it quite a lot. It was very much a first collection, there were some signs here in there that she will still grow as a poet, but I really found it interesting how she was able to transpose images or even just words from one poem to the next and enlarge their meaning, or maybe even contradict them with another one. It was very rewarding in this sense following the complete collection from one poem to the next. And yeah she is she is rather a more intellectual, at least in this collection, than a sensorial poet (by which I mean, capturing the ideas in each poem was the greater reward — in that I could see her being easier to be taught in a class than, say, Tranströmer, whom you read in pleasure alone).

but one thing I will say though is she is every close reader’s dream ?

 

[errequatro]

Thank you for asking Liam.

Let me start with those deceased in the last decade, Wisława Szymborska, Tadeusz Różewicz, Julia Hartwig, Stanisław Barańczak, Ferenc Juhasz, Sandor Csoori, Yves Bonnefoy, Claude Vigée, Les Murray, Derek Mahon, Geoffrey Hill, Seamus Heaney, Louis Simpson, Leopoldo Maria Panero, Jose Emilio Pacheco, Ali Chumacero and Nicanor Parra.

Then the very old guard, Friederique Mayrocker, Reiner Kunze and Philippe Jaccottet.

Christian Bobin, Lydie Dattas, Jacques Roubaud, Volker Braun, Adélia Prado, Anne Carson, Abdellatif Laâbi, Ko Un, Olvido García Valdés, Luis Alberto de Cuenca.

As the names of Ana Blandiana, Ivan Wernisch, Adam Zagajewski and Ewa Lipska suggest, Eastern European poetry is where it's at for reading poems in translation. Even after you take away the music, rhythm and semantic allusions, their poems are still rich enough in imagery, ideas, cultural content and emotion to make their translations enjoyable.

I am in complete agreement with these names... the "Polish school" is indeed formidable (even though I am not the greatest of fans of Adam Zagajewski, he normally goes to the café I also go to and I know his translator to Spanish and Catalan and I must say he has the air of this self-important, pompous, bid-deal poet who was in shock for not having received the Nobel instead of Olga... well... I am sure he is a great poet) and I must recommend Ewa Lipska too! Add Ferreira Gullar (Brazil) to the list...

In Portugal there are currently (as always) fabulous poets but I am not sure how they fare in terms of translation into English: I have in mind Herberto Helder (even though he's deceased his shadow is still great), José Tolentino Mendonça (who is a cardinal and the Chief Librarian of the Vatican but a truly excellent poet)... so many...

 

[Daniel del Real]

I've thought a bit about Louise's poetry over the past couple weeks. I remember reading one of her collections and quite admiring some parts of it. But I recently reviewed my reading journal, and then my review of it, and it also reminded me of her inconsistency. She can be truly exceptional in certain moments, but in some poems you I often feel it is missing an opportunity for one more edit.

This is pretty much my same appreciation after reading three of her books. I've decided to read one more, probably A Village Life's...

 

[Leseratte]

Have you ever read Manuel Bandeira, Lucas? There is much meaning buried in apparent simplicity.

I just had a look if there was an English Wikipedia site and found a bilingual edition (Spanish-English) of his poems;

Amazon.com: This Earth, That Sky: Poems by Manuel Bandeira (Volume 1) (Latin American Literature and Culture) (English and Spanish Edition): 9780520302938: Bandeira, Manuel, Slater, Candace: Books

Amazon.com: This Earth, That Sky: Poems by Manuel Bandeira (Volume 1) (Latin American Literature and Culture) (English and Spanish Edition): 9780520302938: Bandeira, Manuel, Slater, Candace: Books

www.amazon.com

 

[Uemarasan]

In Portugal there are currently (as always) fabulous poets but I am not sure how they fare in terms of translation into English: I have in mind Herberto Helder (even though he's deceased his shadow is still great), José Tolentino Mendonça (who is a cardinal and the Chief Librarian of the Vatican but a truly excellent poet)... so many...

Some Herberto Helder in English:

Herberto Helder (poet) - Portugal - Poetry International

Born in Funchal (Madeira Island) in 1930. After having abandoned both his Law and Romanic Philology studies, he worked in various areas, traveled extensively throughout Europe, …

www.poetryinternational.org

And Jose Tolentino Mendonça:

José Tolentino Mendonça (poet) - Portugal - Poetry International

Like Herberto Helder, but 35 years later, José Tolentino Mendonça was born in Madeira. The very first poem of his first published book is titled ‘The Childhood of Herberto …

www.poetryinternational.org

Thank you for these recommendations. These poems are beautiful, and make one wish we were in the era of universal translators.

Jose Tolentino Mendonça is especially interesting to me, since some of the most beautiful literature I’ve read was produced by religious figures and saints such as Teresa of Avila.

 

[namelesshere]

How sad: https://apnews.com/article/louise-g...n=TrueAnthem&utm_medium=AP&utm_source=Twitter