Tuesday, January 2, 2018

Béatrice Machet # 2 How to Join the Row

In response to Magdalena's first poem

"a storm would have shook it free"



HOW TO JOIN THE ROUND 



to start knitting
    you must begin with a cast-on

loops on the needle

you can wrap cast
    you can knit cast
       you can long tail cast you can …

                so many names whirling around
                                         and so many cast-on methods …

                  Now make sure
the stitches are on the inside of the circle made by the circular needle

your storm pattern is ready
don’t fear the twists
the Mobius never ending ring
becoming strip
you don’t need to
know the limit of the row

and now you can work in the round
                   I’m here
     waving words in the middle
     this nowhere as a real world 


and now Magdalena's poem into French  




une tempête l’aurait délivré                               

ce fut un départ circulaire
quelque part au milieu
comme si un nouveau nom
changeait la trame de l’histoire

mon étagère de livres tomba
dans la tempête
le tas avait sa propre esthétique
nous disait quelque chose de nous-mêmes
notre ambiance
la joie aléatoire qui nous fragmente

ce ne fut pas la première
vérité dite

quand je prétendais comprendre
le paysage assombri
un coup d’œil rapide sur ton front
tes mains qui tricotaient
un langage déjà

le fossé s’amplifiait
qui pouvait payer, qui ne pouvait pas
cette ascension rapide vers le pouvoir
chaque barreau de l’échelle s’écroulant
sous ses jambes enflées
tu pleurais de frustration

travaillais avec fièvre
ignorant l’aube qui réveillait
les hormones

je voulais que le monde
fut réel
peu importe la logique rigide
du tournoiement

les arbres en silence
chantonnaient, un chaos grandissait
juste sous l’écorce

ce fut le commencement


Monday, January 1, 2018

David McAleavey, 1st post: "Resolved" Jan. 1, 2018


Resolved

The stone axe on display shall not lose its power to hack, to act. Gadgets shall not gag. Deliberation shall not devolve to delay. Having mated, the lions shall rest, loyal and mute. Frozen waterfalls shall neither swoon nor sway. News shall neither enervate nor enfeeble. Robots shall not lobotomize. Flies and silverfish shall neither flame nor shine like the sun. A digital assistant shall not direct his assets when its master has died. The restaurant “One Vie” shall only succeed by reclaiming, restoring envy. Envy shall never envy envy.


Cui Yuwei #2-A Translation of Kevin Brophy’s ‘Kangaroo’

Cui Yuwei #2-A Translation of Kevin Brophy's Kangaroo

Kangaroo
Written in English by Kevin Brophy
Translated into Chinese by Cui Yuwei

At ten minutes into the year a ghostly kangaroo stood in the road in the lights of our car and looked over its shoulder into this dazzling apparition floating towards it, and it turned back into the path of the light now upon it, its grey self smooth, unknowing, detailed and ready to go back that way across our path to the ones in the dark that will know its smell, its breath, its way of nuzzling into the warmth of the earth as we glided beyond it following our lit up world to a corner of it where we could put our heads down and dream of other places we somehow mysteriously keep arriving at.


《袋鼠》


還有十分鐘,就是新年,路上立著一只鬼鬼祟祟的袋鼠,被我们的车灯照著,它扭頭看向这个正朝它飄過去,刺眼的幻影,接著又轉身走上亮著光的路,它身上光滑的灰,無知,精細,它准备好穿過路面回歸黑暗中的事物,它們懂得它的氣味,它的呼吸,它在溫暖土地中擦蹭的樣子,而我們在明亮的世界里輕駛過它身邊,去往一个角落,在那裡我们低下頭,梦想著那些說不定就會不可思議抵達的地方。