Blissful Times
Read reviews of Blissful TimesFootnotes to Blissful Times
Click here for an oral history of the project, (more or less) as presented at Jay MillAr's Speakeasy at This Ain't the Rosedale Library in April 2005.
"One does not appear to be asking a great deal, indeed at times it would seem hardly possible...to ask less – of a fellow-creature... whereas actually – when you think about it – look into your heart – see the other – what he needs – peace – to be left in peace – then perhaps the moon – all this time – asking for the moon."
-Winnie from Happy Days
by Samuel BeckettOnline
Translations
(approximate download times listed for those with slower connections)
Watch
"Slippery"
(DL 2 minutes)
Listen to
"After Going Out"
(DL 60s)
Watch
"Tone"
(DL 1.5 minutes)
Listen to
"Befiillmssstu"
(DL 30s)
Read/Listen
"After the Phone Call"
(DL 30s)
Look at "Measure"
Read/Listen
"Rant"
(DL 30s)
Blissful Times is a book (and website) of 63 poetic "translations" of one poem. I began the project with found text by Samuel Beckett from the play Happy Days (see above quote), which I "translated" into a poem. I continue to translate it, mainly from English to English, using: formal constraints (e.g. alphabetizing the words in the poem); specialty dictionaries (e.g. replacing all the words in the poem with their slang equivalent from a Dictionary of Slang); search engines; voice-activated software; experiences from my life (e.g. what the poem means to me after a particularly bad day); and occurrences in the world (e.g. the poem in relation to being at war). I also translate into sound poetry, rants, film and photographs. See the bar on the right "Online Translations" for translations available only online.
The idea is to explore how many ways there are to say one thing, to see how much of herself the translator inserts (knowingly or unknowingly), to reexamine what constitutes an "accurate" translation, to trace the presence of the original text and writer through the process, and to perhaps even create a dialogue between writers and various texts. And yes, also to write poems that are engaging and moving, even if the reader knows nothing about the process at all...
Purchase Blissful Times.
