{"id":924,"date":"2012-01-19T15:44:41","date_gmt":"2012-01-19T19:44:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/?p=924"},"modified":"2014-01-16T13:11:47","modified_gmt":"2014-01-16T17:11:47","slug":"mcnair-to-hall-2-26-1978","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/mcnair-to-hall-2-26-1978\/","title":{"rendered":"McNair to Hall: February 26, 1978"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n
\"Page-1-McNair-to-Hall-2-26-1978\"<\/a>\"Page-2-McNair-to-Hall-2-26-1978\"<\/a>\"Page-3-McNair-to-Hall-2-26-1978\"<\/a>\"Page-4-McNair-to-Hall-2-26-1978\"<\/a>\"Page-5-McNair-to-Hall-2-26-1978\"<\/a>\"Page-6-McNair-to-Hall-2-26-1978\"<\/a>\"Page-7-McNair-to-Hall-2-26-1978\"<\/a>\"Page-8-McNair-to-Hall-2-26-1978\"<\/a>\"Page-9-McNair-to-Hall-2-26-1978\"<\/a>\"Page-10-McNair-to-Hall-2-26-1978\"<\/a>\"Page-11-McNair-to-Hall-2-26-1978\"<\/a><\/p>\n

[Click image to view]<\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n

Santiago
\nFebruary 26, 1978<\/p>\n

Dear Don \u2013<\/p>\n

You asked me to send you some of my translations of N. Parra.
\nI have by now translated several of his poems. But I am
\nsending you only the three which I wish to include in my
\nfirst volume of poetry. As I may have explained, the
\nthing will conclude with fifteen or so pages of contemporary
\nChilean poetry in translation. I will choose the poems by a
\nfairly arbitrary set of criteria, insisting that they be
\nfree verse poems and that they further themes in the
\n\u201cbook proper\u201d. For the Parra translations, there\u2019s still another
\nprerequisite: they must be sufficiently different from the
\nWilliams (or Wright or whomever) versions to stand
\non their own. Having seen the Williams translations of
\n\u201cStains on the Wall\u201d and \u201cThe Beggar\u201d, I am not worried
\nabout publishing my renditions : They are in their way
\nquite different \u2013 and, I am convinced, better \u2013 translations.
\nI have not seen what may have been done earlier with
\n\u201cThe Man\u201d, but will know as soon as a friend in Cambridge
\nsends me the two NEW DIRECTIONS Parra books \u2013
\nPoems and Antipoems<\/span> and Emergency Poems<\/span>. \u201cThe Man\u201d<\/p>\n

2\/<\/p>\n

is a simpler poem in its language, and therefore difficult
\nto screw up. But Williams, Parra\u2019s principal translator,
\nhas gone so far wrong with other poems, it\u2019s not hard
\nto imagine that he\u2019s done it again with \u201cThe Man\u201d.<\/p>\n

I have sent you two versions of \u201cStains on the Wall\u201d \u2013
\nmine and Williams\u2019 \u2013 so you can see how we differ
\nand why I think he\u2019s on the wrong track\u2026later, I
\nmay send you Parra\u2019s \u201cSelf Portrait\u201d, which I may include
\nin my book, and which I\u2019ve just finished translating.
\nI will certainly send you my translations of poems by
\nGonzalo Rojas, which I will include, and which
\nI\u2019m working on now.<\/p>\n

Please let me know what you think. Also what you
\nthink of \u201cMemory of North Sutton\u201d. I don\u2019t know
\nwhen I\u2019ve had so many poems underway in
\nmy notebooks \u2013 but progress is, as usual slow. I have
\nsome I think are ready, but I want to be sure
\nbefore you see them. Others sit and sulk on the page.
\nThe good news is that I seem to have most of my
\npart of the book written. When it\u2019s done, you and
\nJane will be the first to see it, a dubious distinction,<\/p>\n

3\/<\/p>\n

perhaps, but the best I can offer right now.<\/p>\n

We will be home, to answer your recent question,
\nat the end of August \u2013 a bit late, but I\u2019ve been asked
\nby the Fulbright Commission to stay on for a month
\nto lecture at a variety of universities in South America \u2013
\nthis is a result of a week-long all-South American
\nconference on American civilization for which I did all
\nthe lectures. It went well, better than I had expected,
\nand various participants invited me to their home
\ninstitutions. In April, Diane and I will be traveling
\nto the South of Chile; sometime later, we\u2019ll go to
\nthe North. Now, I\u2019m on vacation (until March
\n15) and am using the time to write and put together
\na course called \u201cThe City and the Town in American
\nCulture\u201d. It will include lots of 20th Century
\nliterature and art.<\/p>\n

Forgot to mention that the most serious
\npotential obstacle to my home-coming was an
\noffer from the U. of Concepcion (where Meriam
\nDiaz is \u2013 a wonderful place, whose campus looks
\nlike Berkeley\u2019s) to stay on indefinitely as a full<\/p>\n

4\/<\/p>\n

professor of American civilization. For a variety of reasons,
\nincluding job security at home, I turned the offer down,
\nbut that was a difficult decision.<\/p>\n

So it\u2019s definite for late August. Perhaps you would
\nhave time for a reunion near that time? Diane and I
\nwould like that.<\/p>\n

Please say hello to Jane for me. And please
\npass on the enclosed to her. Tell her I got my
\nGreen House and was very pleasantly surprised to find
\nmy name on its cover \u2013 a first for me. Also please
\nconvey how pleased I was to hear that Louis Simpson
\nliked \u201cThe Last Peaceable Kingdom\u201d.<\/p>\n

Our best to you both,<\/p>\n

Wes<\/p>\n

P.S. I liked \u201cStone Walls\u201d, and I will enjoy teaching
\nit. How different it was from the last version! Are
\nyou finished with it? I am strongly in favor of
\nthe revisions you\u2019ve made. It\u2019s a remarkable poem, I think.<\/p>\n

About \u201cThe Poetic License\u201d; I\u2019ve decided to
\nkeep the last line, at least for now, since I still<\/p>\n

5\/<\/p>\n

like the way it completes the image of a \u201cpoetic license\u201d
\nand I like the way it places the burden of all that
\nAmerican mythology upon the poet who would write about
\nAmerica today \u2013 this in spite of his apparent distance
\nfrom the mythology \u2013 his playing with it, joking about
\nit, etc. \u2013I.e., to have a poetic license, he must
\nfind a way of dealing with the poetic license
\nto which the poem earlier refers.<\/p>\n

But you\u2019ve made me wary of my \u201cjustifications\u201d.
\nI can only hope I\u2019m right.<\/p>\n

Muchos Saludos !<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

THE BEGGAR<\/p>\n

It is not possible to live in the city
\nWithout having an official function:
\nThe police enforce this law.<\/p>\n

Some are soldiers
\nWho spill their blood for the country
\n(This goes between quotation marks)<\/p>\n

Others are astute merchants
\nWho take away a gram
\nOr two or three from each kilo of plums.<\/p>\n

And those further on are priests
\nWho pass each other with a book in hand.<\/p>\n

Each one knows his business.
\nAnd what do you think mine is?<\/p>\n

To sing
\nTo all the closed windows<\/p>\n

Hoping they will open
\nAnd
\ndrop
\nme
\na coin.<\/p>\n

–Nicanor Parra<\/p>\n

A MAN<\/p>\n

The mother of a man is gravely ill
\nHe leaves to look for the Doctor
\nHe cries
\nIn the street he sees his wife with another man
\nThey are walking hand in hand
\nHe follows at a short distance
\nFrom tree to tree
\nHe cries
\nNow he meets a friend from his youth
\nIt\u2019s been years since we\u2019ve seen each other!
\nThe go into a bar
\nThey talk, they laugh
\nThe man leaves to urinate on the patio
\nHe sees a young girl
\nIt is night
\nShe is washing dishes
\nThe man approaches the young woman
\nHe takes her by the wrist
\nThey dance waltzes
\nTogether they go into the street
\nThey laugh
\nThere is an accident
\nThe girl has lost consciousness
\nThe man goes to find a telephone
\nHe cries
\nHe reaches a house with lights
\nHe asks for a telephone
\nSomeone recognizes him
\nStay to eat, man
\nNo
\nWhere is the telephone
\nEat, man, eat
\nAfterward you can go
\nHe sits down to eat
\nHe drinks like a condemned man
\nHe laughs
\nThey make him recite
\nHe recites
\nHe falls asleep under a desk<\/p>\n

–Nicanor Parra<\/p>\n

MILLER WILLIAMS VERSION OF STAINS ON THE WALL<\/p>\n

1 Before the night falls completely on us
\n2 Let\u2019s study the stains on the wall:
\n3 Some appear to be plants
\n4 Others look like mythological animals.<\/p>\n

5 Hippogrifos,
\n6 dragons,
\n7 salamanders.<\/p>\n

8 But the most extraordinary of all
\n9 Are the ones that seem to be atomic explosions<\/p>\n

10 In the cinematography of the wall
\n11 The soul sees what the body does not:
\n12 Kneeling men
\n13 Mothers with creatures in their arms
\n14 Statues on horseback
\n15 Priests lifting the host
\n16 Genitalia coming together<\/p>\n

17 But the most mysterious of all
\n18 Beyond a doubt
\n19 Are the ones that seem to be atomic explosions.<\/p>\n

Notes<\/p>\n

1&2 : Parra speaks of night in this stanza \u2013 but also of the darkness of the holocaust.
\nThat point emerges somehow out of the seriousness and the formality of the speaker\u2019s invitation
\nto \u201cstudy\u201d. Williams\u2019 first line has an awkwardness that results from a literal translation.
\nHis second line \u2013 \u201cLet\u2019s, etc.\u201d \u2013 is informal, almost suggests \u201cfun\u201d. If it establishes any
\ntone at all, it\u2019s a tone of \u201cflipness\u201d \u2013 as if the antipoet is a man who is flip, insouciant.
\nThat sort of tone, by the way, permeates Williams\u2019 book. Actually, Parra\u2019s tones are many,
\nand it\u2019s vitally important to get them straight, esp. since so much of the poetry comes out of
\nthe tone.<\/p>\n

3 \u201cappear to be\u201d : suggests too much of a distance between the stain and its correspondent.<\/p>\n

5 \u201cHorses\u201d will do, since the category of \u201cmythological animals\u201d has already been established.
\n\u201cHyppogrifos\u201d is too strained a reference.<\/p>\n

5 \u2013 7 Doing away with the commas helps the reader to better see the animals on the \u201cfield\u201d of
\nthe wall. (I take liberty with the original here.)<\/p>\n

8 \u201cextraordinary\u201d should<\/span> be \u201cmysterious\u201d \u2013 translation is careless, esp. since \u201cmysterious\u201d
\nconveys the strangeness of the investigation which we are invited to make. \u201cExtraordinary\u201d
\nbelongs at the end of the poem \u2013 in its last line \u2013 where Parra originally put it, the better
\nto conclude<\/span> our investigation. Of course Williams places \u201cmysterious\u201d in that line.<\/p>\n

9 \u201cseem to be\u201d : Both here and in the last line; this phase makes the likeness more
\nconditional than it is supposed to be.<\/p>\n

10 \u2013 15 This stanza includes roles, activities, images which connote the ongoing processes,
\nthe stability of civilization. Strangely, these things can also suggest the terror
\nof a civilization coming apart \u2013 like some section of Picasso\u2019s Guernica<\/span>. I sense
\nin his mechanical, also literal rendering of these lines, Williams\u2019 unawareness
\nof the above. Note also his inappropriate translation of lines 13 and 14 :
\n\u201cstatues on horseback\u201d belies a carelessness for which there is simply no excuse.<\/p>\n

16 In Parra\u2019s poem this line appears on its own, with space above and below itself- It seems
\nto me that Parra singles it out in this way to give a new connotation to the
\n\u201catomic explosions\u201d of the poem\u2019s conclusion. They become an awful inverted
\norgasm, one which blows man, woman and the created world to pieces. \u201cGenitalia\u201d ?
\nLiteral. Mechanical.<\/p>\n

Since the resonances of this poem are subtle, it requires a painstaking
\ntranslation. The wrong word or phrase can ruin the whole thing. Obviously, there\u2019s
\nmore than that<\/span> wrong with Williams\u2019 rendition. Even punctuation can make a
\ngreat difference in a poem like this. And Williams is very sloppy about punctuation.<\/p>\n

STAINS ON THE WALL<\/p>\n

Before the darkness descends
\nWe will study the stains on the wall.
\nSome look like plants
\nOthers resemble mythological animals:<\/p>\n

Horses
\ndragons
\nsalamanders<\/p>\n

But the most mysterious of all
\nAre the ones which look like atomic explosions.<\/p>\n

In the cinematography of the wall
\nThe soul sees what the body does not:
\nMen on their knees
\nMothers with babies in their arms
\nEquestrian monuments
\nPriests offering the body of Christ:<\/p>\n

Genital organs coming together.<\/p>\n

But the most extraordinary of all
\nAre without a doubt
\nThe ones that look like atomic explosions.<\/p>\n

–Nicanor Parra<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

MEMORY OF NORTH SUTTON \u00a0[Wesley McNair]<\/p>\n

Five thousand miles from here
\nNorth Sutton is sleeping.
\nGas pumps doze<\/p>\n

by Vernondale\u2019s store.
\nOld farmhouses lie
\ntethered to the road.<\/p>\n

How quiet they are!
\nHolding the darkness
\nstill in their windows<\/p>\n

resting their great roofs
\namong the trees.
\nSlowly, slowly they shift<\/p>\n

their white sides
\nin the moonlight.
\nIn a sound sleep<\/p>\n

the church
\nlifts its stopped clock
\ninto the night sky.<\/p>\n

Santiago, 1978<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n\n

\n <\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[Click image to view] Santiago February 26, 1978 Dear Don \u2013 You asked me to send you some of my translations of N. Parra. I have by now translated several of his poems. But I am sending you only the three which I wish to include in my first volume of poetry. As I may […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2341,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[35316,35504,35505,42963,293],"tags":[],"builder_content":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/924"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2341"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=924"}],"version-history":[{"count":31,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/924\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11570,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/924\/revisions\/11570"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=924"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=924"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=924"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}