THE WALL Archive #1

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Picture

Jewish boys smuggling food through the

Warsaw Ghetto wall (Jewish Virtual Library)

Three Jewish Boys Write to an
Ancient Chinese Poet

by Judd Teller
      
translated by Dror Abend-David
 
Li-T’ai-Pe, three Jewish boys
take the liberty of greeting you
.
They discussed your poem as the sun set
over the Nalevki, in Warsaw
.

 
Strange light caressed
the remains of ruined castles
;
a coachman swayed in
his seat
; and students
squeezed out of the taverns.
A Jew clutched her hands
and faded into a shadow
in a door
.
Like a lost bird –
between two walls
fluttered a beard
.

 
Tender shine warmed up
the old ruins
and a distant moon flickered

like a ringlet in a pirate’s
ear
.
 
To be sure, the Vistula was filled
with evening’s underbrush of streams and leaves
.
 
The boys would have merely wished to ask
that you would add two lines of fear
to the sunse
t
.

​Dray yidishe yinglekh shraybn

tsu an altn khinezishn poet

 
 

Li-tay-pe, dray yidishe yinglekh
lozn zikh grisn. Zey hobn geredt
fun dayn lid haynt bay zunfargang

af di varshever nalevkes.
 
 Oysterlish likht hot geloshtshet
di gezimsn fun khorove shleser,
a furman hot gehoydet af
der kelnye un studentn hobn

geshport fun der shenkgas.
A yidene hot farpatshet di hent
un zikh arayn geshotent
in a toyer.

Vi a farblodzsheter foygl –
hot tsiveshn tsvey moyern
geflotert a bord.

 
Tserte shayn hot gevaremt
di gezimsn
.
A vayte levone hot gefinklt
vi a rayfl bay a pirat

in oyer.
 
Mistome hot di Vaysl ful geven
Mit ovntikn roysh fun shtrom un bleter.
 
Di yinglekh voltn bloyz gevolt
du zolst tsushraybn tsvey shur
es shrek tsu der shkie.

דריי יידישע יינגלעך שרייבן
צו אן אלטן כינעזישן פאעט
 

 
לי-טאי-פע, דריי יידישע יינגלעך
לאזן זיך גריסן. זיי האבן גערעדט
פון דיין ליד היינט ביי זונפארגאנג
אויף די ווארשעווער נאלעווקעס
.
 
אויסטערליש ליכט האט געלאשטשעט
די געזימסן פון חרובע שלעסער,
א פורמאן האט זיך גהוידעט אויף
דער קעלניע און סטודענטן האבן
געשפארט פון דער שענקגאס.
א יידענע האט פארפאטשט די הענט
אוך זיך אריינגעשאטנט
אין א טויער
.
ווי א פארבלאנדזשעטער פויגל –
האט צווישן צוויי מויערן
געפלאטערט א בארד.
 
צארטע שיין הוא געווארעמט
די געזימסן
.
א ווייטע לבנה האט געפינקלט
ווי א רייפל ביי א פיראט

אין אויער.
 
מסתמא האט די ווייסל פול געווען
מיט אוונטיקן רויש פון שטראם און בלעטער
.
 
די יינגלעך וואלטן בלויז געוואלט
דו זאלסט צושרייבן צוויי שורות שרעק
צו דער שקיעה.

​
​Notes by translator, Dror Abend-David:

Judd Teller, a Modernist who was very familiar with the works of other early Modern American poets, responds in this poem both to Ezra Pound’s great interest in ancient Chinese Poetry, and to Pound’s treatise on poetry, as it is phrased by Pound’s colleague and linguist, Ernest Fenollosa. Fenollosa’s article, “The Chinese Written Character as a Medium for Poetry,” which was published and edited by Ezra Pound in 1918, lays out the basis for a modern poetry that consists of “strong verbs” and “concrete metaphors” –- a poetry that avoids the abstraction of infinitives, and which transcends the boundaries that are created by the inflexible assignment of speech parts in Western Grammar. The article calls for the preference transitive to intransitive verbs, the avoidance of negations, and the adoption of objective, rather than subjective point of views. As an example, the article presents the sentence “Farmer pounds rice,” arguing against the essential relation of subjugation between the farmer and the rice, and presenting all three participants: the farmer, the rice, and the poet (Pound) who mitigates between the two, as equal participants within the ongoing processes of the universe.
 
Teller applies these principles to his poem, but finally subverts them. The further he uses ‘direct,’ ‘transitive,’ and ‘positive’ verbs, the further it is clear that the ‘democratic’ reading of the sentence, “Farmer pounds rice,” is impossible when one writes “as rice,” from the point of view of the one who is being beaten. Teller demonstrates the injustice that is laid in the ‘democratic’ portrayal of subject and object, which erases the power relation that exists between the two. In doing so, he points out to a certain moral insensitivity in a discourse of ‘powerful’ poetry, which does not take into account the impact of such power. And, writing from the point of view of ‘pounded rice,’ Teller is perhaps able to point out an early stage in a process of transcending ‘conventional norms’ that takes Pound from the peaceful Cathay to the seemingly inexplicable hate-speech of his radio broadcasts during the Second World War.


Further Reading:

Ernest Fenollosa, The Chinese Written Character as a Medium for Poetry, Ed. Ezra Pound, San Francisco: City Lights Books, 1918
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