Segment of Canto I of The Inferno
Shove off, shove off me midway stream that I am,
I found myself amongst the horrible holographic trees,
Astray / Askance / And with no direction home:
build a ballad of the grand bois, how savage wild
That forest, robust / rough/ its growth,
Death before a melody like that again and other “thoughts”
Uncovered / unclothed/ uncouth/ restlessly relayed
The first steel door I can’t remember
Hazelight eyes plumbed my scope
when I left the high street
Kicking up against the mountain toe
The spread that pierced my heart needling /dread/
Burly brawd shoulders / brimming / I saw
dressed in the light of earthly colour / trees/
Bus driver who doesn’t steer you wrong
Something to get me over / a drug for e.g. /
the flickering agony in the pit
that came out of that nightime-like / pissed/ fully passed
Like a panting sailor running quick the other way,
Shanty && Sherry to his lips
I gazed out into the empty lots and Unreal City
Now empty of Spirits and Wine
Struggling with terrors / went looking for the straits,
seeing more life than what I’ve left behind.
Worn my frame / fraying at the edges /but complacent again /
I turn back to sleep and twitter in the peaks.
I’d rather run the fuck away. The climb up the charts had barely begun
When I saw a panther, nimble and made of light / prismic/
speckles of the sun in its skin making itself Houdini,
Determined to find my feet and chew them
With paranoid perception I re-traced and re-traced my
Thrashing steps.
Holy shite, dude. Well done. What method of translation are you using?
ReplyDeleteReminds me a bit of Basil Bunting's "Briggflatts."
Well I'm basically using a 19th century translation, kind of prosey in its efforts and so trying to keep that in mind... also, there's my own little secret idea that will become clearer...
ReplyDelete