ON MAJUSCULES
The poetry of Roberto Juarroz have been translated into English by W.S. Merwin among others. In Merwin's Selected Translations: 1968-1978 there is a poem by Juarroz wherein is depicted a man and his strange encounter with capital letters. They are described as follows:
They weigh more on the tongue.In 1988 another version of the poem appears in Vertical Poetry. Same translator, same poem, different time and therefore slightly different rendering.
They weigh more but they get away
faster and hardly
can they be spoken.
They weigh more on the tongue.Vertical Poetry put out by North Point Press provides us with the source text in the beautiful design by David Bullen (where the Spanish is given at the bottom of the page instead of the more often encountered facing page layout).
They weigh more but they get away
faster and he can hardly
pronounce them.
Pesan más en la lengua.Merwin in his second version brings back the man facing capitals as an agent of the pronunciation. This removes the somewhat awkward passive but in giving up that construction, the clunk (due to the enjambement and the repeated K sounds: "hardly / can they be spoken") is lost. The clunk I would suggest is part of the difficulty in pronouncing the fleeting letters.
Pesan más pero escapan
con más prisa y apenas
si puede pronunciarlas.
A translation of the translation can offer a typographic trick: "hardly / can they be SPOKEN". And further, poking at the spooks ... "hardly / can they be S P O K E N".
And so for day 1124
10.01.2010
