"It is thus that they sing"
Kogawa, Okpik, Bedient, Mandelstam, Whalen
Joy Kogawa:
Dg Nanouk Okpik:
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Calvin Bedient:
Osip Mandelstam (tr. from Russian by W.S. Merwin):
Philip Whalen:
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Wow, the Philip Whalen!! Thanks, as for Mandelstam, I also translated that poem, Gather Joy in Poems from the Stray Dog Cafe:
Gather joy from the palms of my hands,
A little sun, a little honey,
Just as Persephone's bees command.
You can't untie a drifting skiff,
Or hear a shadow shod in furs,
Or banish fear from this desolate life.
Now all that is left are kisses,
Downy as the smallest bees
Who die, just as they leave the hive.
They rustle in night’s transparent maze,
Their home—Taygetos’ densest trees,
Their food—time, and mint, and honeyed wine.
So gather joy from my wild gift,
A simple necklace of lifeless bees
Who once turned honey into sun.
Osip Mandelstam, 1920
This selection is wonderful, whimsy and gravity. I know the crows of the candy necklace.