Strange Relations. Cultural Translation of Noh Theatre in Ezra Pound’s Dance Poems and W. B. Yeats’s At the Hawk’s Well

Drawing on the reception of Noh drama by Ezra Pound and William Butler Yeats, the article analyses both the literary and cultural ‘translations’ of this form of Japanese theatre in their works, focusing on Yeats’s play At the Hawk’s Well (1917). I conceptualize ‘cultural translation’ as the staging of relations that mark a residual cultural difference. Referred to as ‘foreignizing’ in translation theory, this method enables what Erika Fischer-Lichte has termed a ‘liminal experience’ for the audience –– an effect Yeats intended for the performance of his play. It evokes situations in which opposites collapse and new ways of acting or new combinations of symbols can be tried out. Yeats’s play will be used to sketch how an analysis of relations could serve as a general model for the study of cultural transfer as cultural translation in general. Keywords: cultural translation, translation theory, performance, William Butler Yeats, Itō Michio, Ezra Pound, At the Hawk’s Well

2 Poems by Peretz Hirshbein. 1. A Malech Veint 2. Yamen Roishen

Digitalisat enthält nur 2: Yamen Roishen

This Wildest Year: A collection of poems and photographs

The chapbooks created in the year ending in June 2012 include eleven themed collections and three installments of “In Thirteen Moons,” which didn’t get completed till that fall. This Wildest Year brings together the poems of the eleven themed chapbooks, each as a separate chapter. I have e-published this book for three reasons. First, the chapbooks have all been printed in very limited runs, and few copies remain to be shared with friends, old and new. Second, by ordering the chapters more or less chronologically, one can more easily see themes unfold and new connections made. And finally, this e-book is a bit of an experiment, allowing me to develop skills in self-publishing and graphic design. I hope you will find it to be a successful experiment.

To Mary Ann [passages copied from several poems, written by an unknown student on November 21, 1790]

The creator of this document is unknown, though he was presumably a student at Harvard College, as the name of the college appears on the document twice. Both sides of the document are filled with passages of poetry, including one from Tobias George Smollett's "The Adventures of Roderick Random" and another from John Tapner's "A New Collection of Fables in Verse." The creator seems to have intended the document for someone named Mary Ann.

Poems copied by James Diman, ca. 1730-1733

Small pamphlet-sized notebook containing handwritten transcriptions of three poems copied by James Diman, likely in the early 1730s. The notebook contains "The Catholic Remedy. to ye Tune of To all you Ladies, not at land &c.," "Father Ab--y's Will. Col. Sweeper Camb: Dec. 1731," and "The Poet's Lamentation for ye Loss of his cat, w'ch he used to call his Muse" copied from the London Magazine, November 1733. The "Catholic Remedy" begins "You Peope who desire to mend / your Desperate Estate..." and includes the note, "Made upon A--D--'s goving over to take orders. The note refers to the voyage of Addington Davenport (Harvard AB 1719) to England join the priesthood of the Church of England in 1730. "Father Ab--y's Will" begins "To my dear Wife, / My joy and Life..." and was a humorous poem published in 1731 after the death of Harvard College Sweeper Matthew Abdy, and attributed to Jonathan Seccombe (Harvard AB 1728). The "Poet's Lamentation" begins "Oppress'd with Grief, in heavy strains I mourn..." and was written by Joseph Green (Harvard AB 1726) as a parody of a psalm composed by Mather Byles (Harvard AB 1725). Pages 10-12, holding part of "Father Ab--y's Will" are missing, and pages 13-15 are no longer attached to the item.