chastushki

[twelveoone]

I may be way off base, but the name and such make me think that "dobranoc"- the Polish expression would be a better fit than the Russki version.

Srsly- your opinions on translating poetry?

I don't understand it either, a pole being enamored with a russian literotica site. but senna's an interesting character.
My opion? Or Senna's?
translating poetry is damn near impossible
http://fleursdumal.org/
Here is a web site for Baudelaire, every poem has a different set of compromises,
But it's fun, come to think of it every time you read a good poem in English it should come out differently.

 

[teknight]

I don't understand it either, a pole being enamored with a russian literotica site. but senna's an interesting character.
My opion? Or Senna's?
translating poetry is damn near impossible
http://fleursdumal.org/
Here is a web site for Baudelaire, every poem has a different set of compromises,
But it's fun, come to think of it every time you read a good poem in English it should come out differently.

I'm going to ignore Senna's opinion, but, oh well, I'm dumb like that.
I don't wanna make too big of a deal of it, 'cause saying a language is special (which, for me, underlies the translation effort) just feels ...wrong to me.
And, I mean, you can kinda get the elements there...but...it's not the same thing.
I say this being at least bilingual, and having studied more Romanian poetry than I ever cared for, although, once Baudelaire's aesthetic of the ugly got out, Romanian poetry got more interesting...sort of.

Hmm...are there multilingual poems?

 

[bronzeage]

I may be way off base, but the name and such make me think that "dobranoc"- the Polish expression would be a better fit than the Russki version.

Srsly- your opinions on translating poetry?

It's enough work to translate the posts around here.

 

[Senna Jawa]

The part about no author's name anyway.

Also; theme, content, tone... yeah. Akin to burlesque grafitti.

There are many tens of thousands of chastushki. This alone implies a great variety in many aspects. Overall there is an immense strength in them. They are a witness of their time, which is one of the fundamental roles of poetry. They do so with humor and irony. An historian can study chastushki and have a more complete knowledge, not available otherwise, and a much better, rich understanding of the folk problems and attitude toward the political and everyday reality. For a contrast, nothing like this can be said about limerics.

Even from some of the examples provided in this thread you can get the premonition of the chastushki's power, if you cared to look at them with a sharp eye. Some of them--unassuming as they are (how nice!)--are no primitive graffiti.

From far distance a star cluster may seem to be just a dot in the sky but actually it is huge, complex, varied, full of life.

***

Post Scriptum: I am not prejudiced against any form. Give me a poem and only then, after reading it, I will judge it. I don't care if it's rewritten from a public restroom wall or from the New York Times Review.

 

[bronzeage]

There are many tens of thousands of chastushki. This alone implies a great variety in many aspects. Overall there is an immense strength in them. They are a witness of their time, which is one of the fundamental roles of poetry. They do so with humor and irony. An historian can study chastushki and have a more complete knowledge, not available otherwise, and a much better, rich understanding of the folk problems and attitude toward the political and everyday reality. For a contrast, nothing like this can be said about limerics.

Even from some of the examples provided in this thread you can get the premonition of the chastushki's power, if you cared to look at them with a sharp eye. Some of them--unassuming as they are (how nice!)--are no primitive graffiti.

From far distance a star cluster may seem to be just a dot in the sky but actually it is huge, complex, varied, full of life.

***

Post Scriptum: I am not prejudiced against any form. Give me a poem and only then, after reading it, I will judge it. I don't care if it's rewritten from a public restroom wall or from the New York Times Review.

Something like that can be said about limericks. This one dates from the 1960's, when Ralph Nader's book, Unsafe at Any Speed created a controversy over auto safety.

There once was a man named Lodge
who had seat belts installed in his Dodge.
When his date was strapped in,
he committed a sin
before they ever left the garage.

I could take this silly discussion a little more seriously if you didn't insist on trashing limericks. I am sure there are just as many limericks about the political and everyday reality of people. That is the beauty of arguing an absolute negative (nothing like this can be said about limerics[sic]), one example sinks the argument.

There were many folk poets of the early 19th century who rebelled against the strict form of the limerick, and refused to write in the familiar five line format. They wrote in a quasi-chastuski form of paired couplets. A lot of their work survives, but history has not been kind to their work. Without the internal couplet of a limerick, the set up for the punchline is weakened.

The best known of their efforts survived only because the outhouse door upon which it was chalked was later used as a table top in a New England fishing village tourist center.

There was a man from Nantucket
whose cock was so long he could suck it,
After careful measurement, it was found
to have lost half an inch from scraping the ground.

Although this school of poets struggled for many years for acceptance on the public stage, people still preferred the traditional limerick and dismissed four line poems as the work of "silly little bitches"<citation needed>.

 

[butters]

*bites lip*

 

[bronzeage]

*bites lip*

It's obvious why I have no friends.

 

[Senna Jawa]

Something like that can be said about limericks. This one dates from the 1960's, when Ralph Nader's book, Unsafe at Any Speed created a controversy over auto safety.

There once was a man named Lodge
who had seat belts installed in his Dodge.
When his date was strapped in,
he committed a sin
before they ever left the garage.

I could take this silly discussion a little more seriously if you didn't insist on trashing limericks. I am sure there are just as many limericks about the political and everyday reality of people. That is the beauty of arguing an absolute negative (nothing like this can be said about limerics[sic]), one example sinks the argument.

You are right of course. I do have a training in science, and immediately after writing my sentence (even during, and also on the occasion of my other critical remarks) I had my doubts. I left the categorical statements for the sake of simplicity and discussion but it was not right. On the top of it, I do like limericks (with "k"--thank you for indicating to me my orthorror).

It's a well known but not widely known principle that:

understatement has more power than overstatement.​

Thank you, bronzeage,

 

[butters]

It's obvious why I have no friends.

no friends? gimme a break

 

[bronzeage]

no friends? gimme a break

No, really. I am just as big an asshole in real life, as I am online.

 

[teknight]

No, really. I am just as big an asshole in real life, as I am online.

Awwww! Do you need hugs?
You say that like it's a bad thing. Pointing out flaws is, in my book, better than mollycuddling fools.

 

[butters]

Awwww! Do you need hugs?
You say that like it's a bad thing. Pointing out flaws is, in my book, better than mollycuddling fools.

what's a molly cuddle?

 

[teknight]

what's a molly cuddle?

Ha!
Mollycoddling is pampering...mollycuddling...is an error on my part.

 

[butters]

Pointing out flaws is, in my book, better than mollycuddling fools.

Ha!
Mollycoddling is pampering...mollycuddling...is an error on my part.

couldn't resist

 

[teknight]

couldn't resist

Feel better now? Need a cigarette? Err...you're in the UK...So, do you need a fag?

 

[butters]

Feel better now? Need a cigarette? Err...you're in the UK...So, do you need a fag?

oh come onnnnnn, it wasn't that exciting

besides, i never smoke except through friction. even that's been a long time, since i discovered the wonders of lube.

 

[teknight]

oh come onnnnnn, it wasn't that exciting

besides, i never smoke except through friction. even that's been a long time, since i discovered the wonders of lube.

I dunno. You went to the trouble.
Why do I feel like there's a limerick in there? Probably a chastushki as well, but Я не говорить Россию.

 

[butters]

I dunno. You went to the trouble.
Why do I feel like there's a limerick in there? Probably a chastushki as well, but Я не говорить Россию.

trouble? where?

i dunno - maybe you can write a poem asking this, spray-can it onto a wall and we'll plant flowers on your brow (a Banksy-related nod)

i would ask for a translation, but ... it's something rude, isn't it?

 

[teknight]

trouble? where?

i dunno - maybe you can write a poem asking this, spray-can it onto a wall and we'll plant flowers on your brow (a Banksy-related nod)

i would ask for a translation, but ... it's something rude, isn't it?

Since when is saying I don't speak Russian rude?

 

[butters]

Since when is saying I don't speak Russian rude?

when you're eating pussy? it's rude to speak with your mouth full, ya know.


now, this thread has been disrupted enough and i have to go do stuff.

 

[Senna Jawa]

i would ask for a translation, but ...

...but that phrase was already a result of a translation (by computer).

 

[butters]

...but that phrase was already a result of a translation (by computer).

never ask a computer to do a man's job