Friday, July 23, 2021

Found in Translation

 





Behold some residents of the 2015 writers' conference at Napa Valley Community College. That was when I last attended, with my sweet husband before his diagnosis of lung cancer. We both had a good time; he always got on well with writers and hit it off particularly well with Brenda Hillman, whose mother was born in Brazil.

I'm looking forward immensely to taking part in a workshop given by Robert Hass (yes, that Robert Hass) on translating poetry. So far, the languages of the source material proposed by other attendees include Tagalog, Korean, Russian, Spanish, and my own German. I want to come up with an English translation of Schumann's setting of sixteen of the poems of Heinrich Heine, Dichterliebe--A Poet's Love. I have loved this piece of music ever since I was introduced to it 50 years ago, and I've been fooling around with translating Heine ever since I first read him. What I'm trying to say is that this is indeed my idea of a good time.

So, this year will be the first time I'm attending a writers' conference solo. I've never before attended one of these conferences without my husband. I'd attend the workshop in the morning and we'd get lunch and I'd tell him all about it and then go write and we'd get dinner and I'd tell him how I wasn't sure if what I'd written was even a poem and he'd support and encourage me through all of this and even claim to have had a good time reading or walking or lying out somewhere and looking at the sky.  I still expect to have a good time talking with other writers and attending events, but--I'll miss my sweetheart too.

Monday, July 12, 2021

Bruce Wayne! He's the greatest orphan of them all!

 

In a desperate effort to find the top of my desk, I came across the following dialog. 
I wish I had written it, but I suspect I transcribed it from the LEGO Batman movie.

Joker:  I’m your greatest enemy!

Batman:  I don’t really have a bad guy. I’m fighting a few different people.

Joker:  What?!

Batman:  I like to fight around.

Joker:  Look, I’m fine with you fighting other people, if you want to do that, but what we have? This is special. So when people ask you who’s your #1 bad guy, you say….?

Batman:  Superman!

Joker:  Are you seriously saying that there’s nothing—nothing!—special about our relationship?

Batman:  Whoa. Let me tell you something, J-Bird:  Batman doesn’t do “-ships”. As in “relationships”. There is no “us”. “Batman & Joker” are not “a thing”. I don’t  need you. I don’t need anyone. You mean nothing to me. No one does.

Joker:   Don't you think it's finally time to face your greatest fear?

Batman:  You mean snakes? No! Clowns! No--snake-clowns!

Joker:  Why did you build the Batmobile with only one seat?

Batman:  Because I only have one butt.


I wrote down also these deathless lines:

What's good about Batman:  Lots of cool gadgets; loves punching; excellent brooding.

We're going to punch those guys so hard, words describing the impact will spontaneously materialize.