fourgreen2 days ago
He is a good poet. Each time in my job when we miss a deadline, or when our implementation causes a bug on the production I read his "Why the classics" (https://allpoetry.com/Why-The-Classics), especially this fragment:
generals of the most recent wars
if a similar affair happens to them
whine on their knees before posterity
praise their heroism and innocence
they accuse their subordinates
envious colleagues
unfavourable winds
Thucydides says only
that he had seven ships
it was winter
and he sailed quickly
readthenotes12 days ago
Thanks! That was unexpectedly touching.
"will it be lovers' weeping in a small dirty hotel when wall-paper dawns"
xhevahir2 days ago
He and Adam Zagajewski are really great poets. I've wondered why Milosz and Szymborska were given Nobel Prizes instead of those two. Maybe because of their political stances? I don't know Polish though so I'm no authority.
fourgreena day ago
I know Polish well and in my opinion at least three of mentioned poets - Miłosz, Szymborska and Herbert - were writing in a style which can be translated to English without much loss. When I read an English translation of, say, Herbert, it doesn't feel much different then reading the original. Which is a luck, because there are a lot of Polish poets (for instance Tuwim, for instance his "Lokomotywa") which just can't be translated to English, because it would require a translator who would be at least as good poet as the original one. So if you enjoy Herbert more than Szymborska reading an English translation, I bet you would feel the same reading the original poems.
robertlagrant2 days ago
PSA: "Coetzee" is pronounced like "curt sear".
eynshama day ago
Coetzee asked otherwise, although most South Africans pronouncing his surname would say /eə/ or /ɪə/, yes.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinemonitor/2009/09/how_to_s...
PrismCrystal16 hours ago
> /eə/ or /ɪə/
Is this an Afrikaans regional dialect thing, like how the letter e gets pronounced before k? If so, where is each variant associated with?
brnt8 hours ago
Koot-zay.
ajuc2 days ago
I like his poem "The Power of Taste" the best:
It did not take any great character
our refusal dissent and persistence
we had a scrap of necessary courage
but essentially it was a matter of taste
Yes taste
which has fibers of soul and the gristle of conscience
Who knows if we’d been better more prettily tempted
sent women pink and flat as wafers
or fantastic creatures out of Hieronymous Bosch
but what did hell look like in those days
a mud pit a cutthroat’s alley a barracks
called a Palace of Justice
a moonshine Mephisto in a Lenin jacket
sent Aurora’s grandchildren into the field
boys with potato-eaters’ faces
very ugly girls with red hands
Truly their rhetoric was weaved of used sackcloth
(Marcus Tullius turned in his grave)
chains of tautologies a few ailing concepts
torturers’ dialectics reasoning without grace
syntax devoid of the beauty of the subjunctive
So in fact aesthetics can be an aid in life
one shouldn’t neglect the study of beauty
Before we assent we must examine closely
architectural forms rhythms of drum and flutes
oficial colors the homely rituals of burial
Our eyes and ears refused to submit
our princely senses chose proud exile
It did not take any great character
we had a scrap of necessary courage
but in essence it was a matter of taste
Yes taste
which tells you to walk out wince spit out your scorn
even if for that your body’s precious capital the head
would roll
vlad_ungureanu2 days ago
Unfortunately the article is behind paywall :(
dang2 days ago
(https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42203177 was a reply here but I've pinned it to the top)
[deleted]2 days agocollapsed
incubo4u2 days ago