Message-ID: <Pine.NEB.4.63.0605101144480.24000@panix3.panix.com>
From: Alan Sondheim <sondheim@panix.com>
To: Cyb <cybermind@listserv.aol.com>,
"WRYTING-L : Writing and Theory across Disciplines" <WRYTING-L@LISTSERV.UTORONTO.CA>
Subject: My review of Jacques Roubaud which doesn't do it justice
Date: Wed, 10 May 2006 11:47:26 -0400 (EDT)
Jacques Roubaud, The form of a city changes faster, alas, than the human heart, One Hundred-Fifty Poems, 1991-1998, translated by Keith and Rosmarie Waldrop, 2006. Gabe Gudding wrote "Dalkey's looking for reviewers for a new edition of Jacques Roubaud's work translated by the Waldrops. See below for information -- and for the contact info at Dalkey in the event you're interested in reading and reviewing this coolio book. -- Gabe" - and if Gabe called it coolio I thought it was and it is and everyone should read it, absolutely. Roubaud's a member of Oulipo and the book of course reflects that; either Roubaud or the book or poetic form tour Paris and the result is a landscape both bucolic and mesmeric; street-names abound, I'd say, galore, and there are monuments as well as contradiction among cafes. I generally don't like reading poetry, and Oulipo is odd since my own interests tend towards the lurid, hysteric, urgency; and the group is generally anything but; I find the form, based on French or English or whatever combined with mathesis or other structures, often getting in the way, although it (the form's)'s fascinating both as ideal and as hopelessly churning about in the neighborhood, the result of the random or heuristic characteristics of one or another language. It's like finding the longest word with only y's for vowels in English, well syzygy, as if this says something universal. So this goes on, on one hand, and it's wonderfully playful like Exercises in Style by Queneau, the book reflects him (Queneau, of course Roubaud, that should go without saying). The book made me happy; few books do that, except for Buddhist texts, and this doesn't reflect Buddhist thought but would provide a great accompani- ment. I'd like to say the Waldrops did a good job translating - the book reads wonderfully in English - my "native tongue" - but this is the only problem with it, the book, that I find problematic, which I do, that the French isn't given. I don't think for a second any language is translatable, so having the so-called original (forget the decon here) with the translation - yes, I know additional expense etc. - would be literally invaluable. And more so in this case, since there are puns, phrases constructed from street names (and sometimes these are translated, and sometimes not, but who knows whether the original might not have veered into English at these points?), sonnets... - and I would have been able at the least to sound these out! And probably more or less read them in the original. The section that moved me the most - that is one of the most brilliant pieces of writing in any language - and I can only reference here of course the English again (I really don't like this, my native tongue, but that's another story - look at Tahitian grammar and you'll see why) - anyway - this is the section entitled Square des Blancs-Manteaux: Meditation on Death, in Sonnets, According to the Protocol of Joseph Hall, a series of XVIII poems whose titles are taken from Hall's 1607 The Art of Divine Meditation. And these poems come closer to death, to the rasping irregularity and miserable salvation of death, than anything else I've read, or at least than I can recall reading. But then I recall Donne and the field's open again. Here's a sample of some lines from one of the sonnets, " "The Entrance" which of course is the first: Death's entrance, as you enter in, dissent, Decenter Death's dementia and her sense, From Death's Senses, absent thee and resent Consenting to Death's constant Constancy. By Death passed by, repent and be content When Death is pending, her Lamp and her stamp, Clamber toward Death, approach and accent her, Thing yourself Death's indecency and temple. Death readying to carry you away Transport Death in amphorae, deport Death Aggress your Death, baseless and faceless Death And when in dread of Death, make haste: unlace, But bow down when Death is discredited Think how All-wearied Death gives touch, gives bed. This is as untypical as any of the sonnets which are as untypical as any of the other materials in the book. Again, take a look at this book which seems it will be released on July 18, 2006, and will cost $13.95 and will be available from Dalkey Archive Press - www.dalkeyarchive.com - you might want to look at their other publications as well - it's a totally great press. I'll next review sometime soon The Cinema Dreams Its Rivals, Media Fantasy Films from Radio to the Internet, by Paul Young; I'm still with it. - Alan