what does it mean? kirmen uribe
Art done on the information net is called Net-Art. The poetess Elizabeth Macklin has gone and done something just that, but in her case words are the tools used. She is the authoress of two books published by Norton Publishers: “A Woman Kneeling in the Big City” and “You’ve just been told”. She received the Lowell Poetry Travelling Scholarship grant which basically pays people to pack their bags and head off abroad on a poetry-writing quest. This is exactly what she did. She packed her bags and headed for... Bilbo. No sooner had she touched down than she was off to get Basque classes in AEK. Ever since then she has been a steady visitor to these shores. She wrote the poem accompanying this text, based on chat-line experiences, in Basque and English. On the one hand she captures the moment when the conversation took place, and on the other she goes into the relationship between languages. She likes playing around with translations, and she really focuses on the meaning of what is being said as well as tuning into the reader’s stance. She loves to translate the Basque to English and lose herself in the different musical tunes created by those translations.
This poem was first published in Barrow Street magazine, 2001, in New York.
WHAT DOES IT MEAN?
Scenes in Translation
1
You’ve got a fellow-countryman here.
2
They say love shows in actions rather than words.
...
It’s what rooms are for, or no?
Or they say.
We’ve used them for that, yes.
3
A fellow was intending to tell us about the relation between chaos and language over a few lectures...
He wanted to explain how far the rules of language are chaotic
and how far the chaos in the language did have its rules.
He got tangled up toward the end.
...
WEBMASTER: The clearest kind of chaos is a chat sesion.
...
Absolutely, but we are trying.
...
Yes, and we do get there.
4
But: Does the same thing happen in language as in chaos?
I think so, in some measure yes...
When all is said and done we undertand each other.
and it seems there’s not a rule on earth for archieving that.
5
Later on does an order appear?
Yes, but at the same time a greater disorder comes later.
Well, it was for that that they invented the gods.
Yes, but now what we want is this stature of gods
to get to know everything’s being and order the chaos.
That’s impossible, though.
Yes, but very few of us know that.
ENVOI
Jeez, it was a coup when you called him “Webmister”.
Yes, there’s one who’s well on his way to godhood.
This poem was first published in Barrow Street magazine, 2001, in New York.
WHAT DOES IT MEAN?
Scenes in Translation
1
You’ve got a fellow-countryman here.
2
They say love shows in actions rather than words.
...
It’s what rooms are for, or no?
Or they say.
We’ve used them for that, yes.
3
A fellow was intending to tell us about the relation between chaos and language over a few lectures...
He wanted to explain how far the rules of language are chaotic
and how far the chaos in the language did have its rules.
He got tangled up toward the end.
...
WEBMASTER: The clearest kind of chaos is a chat sesion.
...
Absolutely, but we are trying.
...
Yes, and we do get there.
4
But: Does the same thing happen in language as in chaos?
I think so, in some measure yes...
When all is said and done we undertand each other.
and it seems there’s not a rule on earth for archieving that.
5
Later on does an order appear?
Yes, but at the same time a greater disorder comes later.
Well, it was for that that they invented the gods.
Yes, but now what we want is this stature of gods
to get to know everything’s being and order the chaos.
That’s impossible, though.
Yes, but very few of us know that.
ENVOI
Jeez, it was a coup when you called him “Webmister”.
Yes, there’s one who’s well on his way to godhood.
