Writing in another language is an adventure, reflecting your mother tongue but transforming your mind with new rhythm and melody.
Under The Bell Jar, Hommage to Sylvia Plath
insomnia
Since collaborating with Bill Jenkinson and Oxford Stanza 2 in 2017 a process has started of translating and revising English-German or German-English poems. Suddenly I found myself writing poems in English and then translating them into German.
Bill and I will perform our way of collaboration, joggling the mirror of language.
I also will give examples of my practice to connect poetry with visual arts, especially my poems in mirror writing.
mirrored mirrorwriting, (c) Eva Wal
Der Mond
Der Mond hängt im Himmel
wie eine fleischfressende Pflanze
Grün, gefräßig und gelb
Ob nur für heute Nacht oder für alle Zeit:
Er ist ein grausam gewaltig zartes Blatt
aus mimosenhaftem Grün
Er hängt da für die Liebe
und sonst nichts.
The Moon
The moon hangs in the sky
like a carnivorous plant
Green, greedy and yellow
Whether for this night or for all time
It is a daunting, cruel leaf tender
like mimosa
It hangs in the sky for love
nothing else.
Translation: Pat Winslow and Eva Wal
Under The Bell Jar, Hommage to Sylvia Plath
extract
insomnia
blood on my calf/ razor blue carpet/ the sea breathes through diaphanous curtains/ twenty birthday roses electrocuted/ waste paper basket/ your prying/ mother/ is vain/ I have no secrets/ succumbed to shadows/ I wince/ surreptitiously inside my belly/ I race/ downhill/ wind raking through my hair/ snowfall/ contraction of neon/ a pole a point/ I conceit/ I proceed/ sturdy vigilant/ a tunnel/ a light.
Schlaflos
Blut auf meiner Wade/ rasierklingenblauer Teppich/ das Meer atmet durch Vorhänge/ durchsichtiger Stoff/ zwanzig Rosen zum Geburtstag mit Stromschlag hingerichtet/ Papierkorb/ dein Herumschnüffeln/ Mutter/ ist umsonst/ ich bin den Schatten erlegen/ zucke zusammen/ plötzlich in meinem Bauch/ ein Rennen/ bergab/ der Wind kämmt durch mein Haar/ Schneefall/ Neon-Kontraktion/ ein Pol ein Punkt/ ich begreife/ gehe voran/ beständig wachsam/ ein Tunnel/ ein Licht.
German version, own translation into German.
Three miniatures written after the reading of “The Bell Jar” by Sylvia Plath. They are made of words, expressions and images that got caught in the nets of my memory where they have changed or transformed to a certain extend. I also used words that I had to look up in a dictionary.
Graphic poems
My graphic poems are some of my own poems written in mirror writing and woven into a texture, a fabric. They are not meant to be read but want to be understood as autonomous creatures, effigies behind the looking glass flying off into another dimension.
Taube
Dove
Was bleibt
What remains
Nacht
Night
Wundermorgen
Wondermorning
Die letzte Menschin
The last human being (female)
Ein Land in Dunkelheit
A land in darkness
Mehr Gedichte als Textgrafiken unter grafiken auf diesem Blog. Bitte runterscrollen.
More graphic poems on this Blog, see: grafiken. Please scroll down.
If you want more:
poetry video - video poetry
on this Blog:
https://evawal.blogspot.com/2019/07/judgement-day-video-poem.html
https://evawal.blogspot.com/2019/07/two-swallows-video-poem-from-bulgaria.html
https://evawal.blogspot.com/2019/07/youre-never-alone-in-forest-video-poem.html
