Translation of Eric Mottram's a Faithful Private - 7 -Excerpts From Notes On Poetics By T Wignesan
Translation of Eric Mottram’s A Faithful Private 7 with excerpts from “Notes on Poetics” by T. Wignesan
(Note: With this post, I bring to a close EM’s pamphlet collection: Faithful Private, GENERA editions by Colin Simms, issue 13 (Place:?), 1976, n.p. Translation of No. 6: “Courbet, Elegy 8” I had already posted up on September 26, 2017.
EM’s “Notes on Poetics” appeared in The Journal of Comparative Poietics, Vol. I, n° 1 (Paris), 1989, pp. 37-44. Founder-Editor: T. Wignesan)
“Since the 1960s poetry readings have become seriously effective event in a poet’s life in Britain - that is, not some actor actorizing himself at the expense of the poet and the poem, but the interacting performance of poet, his own work and an audience. At least, in a small place. The large hall, probably these days with absurd electronic amplification, discourages interpenetration and encourages poet-demagogues, and keeps the poet apart and evasive - but, of course, some official establishment poets thrive on this, poet-laureates and the like. (…) During the 1970-1976 period when th Poetry Society, later the National Poetry Centre, in London, became for the first time a centre for truly contemporary poetry, we held regular readings, but also public interview-discussions - one poet at a time - as part of evenings billed as Poetry Information. (…) Poetry had been taken out of the classroom and the academic judgmental enclosure. (…) …and performance also came to include the long-playing record, the cassette, and the video-tape: the poet’s voice and physical presence. The speed of the poem, its sounds and rhythms were offered by their composer as part of poetry, not restricted to print typography. As with music and theatre, performance is the life of the work. Information and exchange of interests founded a poetics that could hold everything within the act of performance between writer, reader, audience and publisher. (…) Most poetry readings are recorded by someone, so that the (poet’s) commentary (on his work) and the performance become part of the poem, and as it is with recorded music, readings can, and often do, vary as - with any luck - the performances increase in number. They become part of a general poetics, too: no proper account of twentieth century poetry is possible without them. Poetics is both the sound and the typographic notation - and notational forms are endless, except for the pathetically classicist.” (JCL, pp. 37-38)
7.
est-ce que vous avez envie de commencer ?
n'importe où
ce que ne pas
détritus ?
le baptisme est la tête sous l’eau
un prêtre coupe le sexe
un examen de sang tenu à l’hauteur du ciel
renouvelle les matériaux
autrefois les mots
une léthargie qui prévoie
à présent des parties de la vie
pas des conquêtes mais l’acceptation
des dons et ne pas de montons
ou les restes du festin
mais les feuilles d’invitation
en avançant nous échangeons des morceaux
ayant d’orgasms dans l’un et de l’autre
comme on s’en fait avec des photos et des poèmes
sans un plafond sur vos yeux:
des trous bien définis de faite et l’ambition
contribuent à faire celui qui agisse:
à l’autorité l’acolyte et le secrétaire
caressent les poignées du pontiff
le Mohave n’est pas silencieux
vous n’arrivez pas l’entendre
pas de Kalahari en (Grande) Bretagne
en s’excluant Fleet Street
Portland Place Shepherds Bush
Great Turnstile entendu avec facilité sur chaque
signalement de rue dans la ville
si vous fermez les presses
en dehors dans la parque où Shiva
entre en tant que Herne
unis pour toujours:
partageant le beat aux couteaux:
un étranger entre dans cette verdure
les crevasses dans le vent d’antan
les mauvaises herbes dans les fissures de la ville
la glace rivet la terre à la forêt
le livre sterling on dit est en train de chuter
les banquiers mangent leur repas avec hâte
la Presse trouve plus d’actualités:
et vous connaissez-vous le remède ?
Nous oui
(c) T. Wignesan - Paris, 2017
Copyright ©
T Wignesan
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