New Year’s is a time to look at where one’s been and to look anew, to make resolutions and changes. So, let’s look anew at a 110-year-old work by Rainer Maria Rilke. That’s appropriate, because Rilke’s “Archaic Torso of Apollo” is about looking at something old, something that many others have looked at. And Rilke’s … Continue reading Archaic Torso of Apollo
What age are we when we write poetry? What age should we be? Poet Donald Hall while writing memoir in essay form after age 80 said that part of why he turned to prose was that after a certain age he no longer felt he had the urge to, or could, write poetry. I’m not … Continue reading Winter Sleep
Continuing our review of the Top Ten most liked and listened to pieces this past season here at the Parlando Project, here are the next three. My son likes to needle me by asking what old dead white men I’m presenting today on the blog. What could be my defense? I could respond that many … Continue reading Fall 2019 Parlando Top Ten, numbers 7-5
It’s been awhile since I last presented one of my fresh translations of a poem from another language here. Today I’m going to sing a version of a poem by classical Chinese poet Wang Wei, but first a few words about translation. I’ve grown to love doing translations from other languages here. I view it … Continue reading Huazi Ridge (after Wang Wei)
It’s time to look at the most liked and listened to pieces here during our just ended winter. Overall, listenership was down in December and January, and I was a little discouraged by the drop off from the growth I was seeing throughout the rest of 2018. But then February was one of our most … Continue reading The Parlando Winter 2018-19 Top Ten part 1
Heard this one? A Chinese poet, a shadow and the moon walk into a bar, and they order wine from a translator…Oh, that was last time, and Le Bai’s “Drinking Alone Beneath the Moon.” Well I promised I’d say a little bit more about translation in another post, as yesterday’s was already long enough. I’ve … Continue reading Translation for Poets and Other Monolinguals
Many things have sideways value. Poetry for example. Its mnemonic features give us poems to remember things, like the number of days in a month. And words have their own music, so much so that even verse in a language we don’t know can sound beautiful in an abstract way. Politics too and public events, … Continue reading Five Kinds of Truth
I almost feel like I need to place a warning label on today’s piece: Rated RE Strong Romantic Emotional Content. Thanatopsic material. May not be suitable for those who have not sufficiently worked through issues with self-harm or the experience of self-dissolution. Modernism had a strong tendency toward a critique and reaction to romanticism and … Continue reading August Moonrise
I’m going to do the top 10 list a little differently for the past fall, doing it in parts, so as to not overwhelm visitors here in one post with more audio pieces than you might have time to listen to. I’m also a bit pressed for time right now, and this fits with my … Continue reading The Parlando Project Winter 2017 Top 10 Part 1
Like Thomas Hardy or James Joyce, D. H. Lawrence is another writer remembered more as a novelist than a poet, though he published multiple books of poetry in a variety of forms in the early 20th Century. He’s hard to place in the various “schools” of poetry of his time. He was published in Imagist … Continue reading Self-Pity
Frank Hudson 