The book I am currently reading, which I find myself thinking about the most, is a collection of poems entitled "Rilke's Book of Hours: Love Poems to God", by Ranier Maria Rilke. The poems were originally written in German and translated, loosely in some cases by Anita Barrows & Joanna Macy. Some of the poems are completely haunting. Case in point, this one where the writer wonders how God will react to the writers death.
What will you do, God, when I die? I am your pitcher (when I shatter?) I am your drink (when I go bitter?) I, your garment; I, your craft. Without me what reason have you?Poetry never translates perfectly -- you can't get meter and rhyme and alliteration to all translate while saving the imagery for a culture who may have no frame of reference. I was really pleasantly surprised when the translators had a somewhat detailed forward where they explain their methologies and the choices they made in order to complete this translation. I wish that more translated books would feature this kind of explanatory material. I realize reading translations of German poets who write about God is kind of an obscure thing to do for pleasure. It was an unexpected surprise to see that Jan, just yesterday, posted another poem by Rilke from the same collection of verse. Odd ... I promise I didn't pawn my book off on her, beg her to read and it and then browbeat her into discussing it. (I'm sure there are people who will read this, who have had me do that :))
Hmmmm.....very interesting.