Pierre Joris

Nomadics

From Dada to Daesh: One hundred years ago today in...

Ball_portrait

... on February 2nd 1916 in Zurich, Switzerland, the following announcement, written by Hugo Ball appeared in the local press:

“The Cabaret Voltaire. Under this name a group of young artists and writers has formed with the object of becoming a center for artistic entertainment. In principle, the Cabaret will be run by artists, permanent guests, who, following their daily reunions, will give musical or literary performances. Young Zurich artists, of all tendencies, are invited to join us with suggestions and proposals.” [Hugo Ball,La fuite hors du temps ([1946], 1993) 111].

Celan the Aphorist

Over the last two year it has been a great pleasure to work on & off at translating Paul Celan's unpublished miscellaneous prose works that were gathered some years ago by Barbara Wiedemann and Bertrand Badiou in the volume Mikrolithen sinds, Steinchen (Microliths these are, little Stones [Pebbles]). Having put the work on the proverbial backburner for some six months, I am now in the process of pulling it out again & going over the texts to shape a final ms. to be published toward the end of the year by modem-verlag.

MikrolithenCoverOver the last two year it has been a great pleasure to work on & off at translating Paul Celan's unpublished miscellaneous prose works that were gathered some years ago by Barbara Wiedemann and Bertrand Badiou in the volume Mikrolithen sinds, Steinchen (Microliths these are, little Stones [Pebbles]). Having put the work on the proverbial backburner for some six months, I am now in the process of pulling it out again & going over the texts to shape a final ms. to be published toward the end of the year by modem-verlag.

Thoughts on Osip Mandelstam's birthday

A birthday that happened 125 years ago today... & still I can't find an English translation that satisfies me completely. Most of them feel more or less flat, with Mandelstam turned into a most salon-fähig lyrical poet of medium to low intensity. (Oddly enough this is true especially of those translations extolled by Joseph Brodsky, someone who should have know, as he was a native Russian who wound up writing in English, but I guess my judgment here may be tainted as I find Brodsky's English work très fade...) Clarence Brown's versions may still be the least proble