Pierre Joris on Paul Celan: poetry, politics, & translation

Pierre Joris on Paul Celan in the 21st Century:

[Film Description from Youtube: A video recorded at the Edison-Newman Room, Houghton Library, (Harvard Nov. 2011) with a multimedia show, produced by Nicole Peyrafitte, the event integrates a range of elements including live narrative and translated poems, and a slideshow of visual materials including photographs, manuscript pages, etchings by Gisèle Celan-Lestrange, historical documents and other relevant and resonant materials. ]

This video captures Pierre Joris' nearly life-long engagement with Paul Celan's poetry and politics. He begins with an introduction to Celan's life and work and explains his relationship with Celan's poems from his earliest memory: a "cutting into the soul" memory, that begins his long relationship with Celan's words. Joris goes on to describe his history of translating Celan along with his meeting of Celan's wife and their subsequent relationship. Joris says he once said to her in regards to allowing more Celan translations to emerge: "Let 1,000 translations bloom."

This is not just a lecture on Celan poetics; this is an example of how 20th century poetry is ushered into our 21st century and how our current technologies can be used to breathe a form of "new life" into the poems. Maybe not "new life" but certainly a new form of living, a new way of getting readers excited and interested in this work, which itself is timeless. This multimedia presentation with films edited and produced by Nicole Peyrafitte captures the viewer's gaze on many levels, from the cerebral deconstruction of the word at its most basic level in discussing translation to the aesthetic beauty of hearing Celan's words against a visually explorative backdrop with the use of the films. The collage of sound, image, and Joris' live discussion of Celan provides a multiple sensory response to Celan's poetry. Joris' talk is about translation and the presentation itself becomes its own form of translation, creating an amalgam of entries into Celan's work for the novice reader. Celan's poems, Joris attests, are a "threshold," a gate ushering us into the 21st century. It stands to reason then that one way of seeing Celan, of engaging with his work is in this 21st century medium of video, sound, images, and also the amazing opportunity of being present in the audience, (somewhat) at this event via the internet.

It's really beautiful as well to capture the passion and energy (and frustrations) of the translator as Joris really delves into specifics in word construction and language about 45 minutes into the film. This video captures Joris' concentrated involvement in the dissection of Celan's often complicated and exhilarating stretching of what the German language can do and how this informs both the poem and the translator's task. Joris lights up on the stage as he describes the "dark 'o' sounds" and "light 'a' sounds" of the poem "Todtnauberg" and the incredible task of ushering the poet Celan into the english language in this our 21st experience of his imperative works.

But I'll let Pierre Joris tell you:

Readings: Nicole Peyrafitte and Pierre Joris

Nicole Peyrafitte and Pierre Joris read Thursday, February 23rd at the Gold Mine Saloon as part of the 17 Poets! Literary and Performance Series. 

It was a touching reunion of poet and place as last time both poets were here in New Orleans was in 2005 just months after the storm. Scheduled to read in late August '05 with our series, Nicole and Pierre  instead came in November of '05 to perform and to document and bear witness to the damage caused to the New Orleans community. Along with their son, Miles Joris-Peyrafitte (now an accomplished young film maker) they took to the decimated streets of New Orleans recording and photographing and most importantly talking to people about their experiences in post Katrina New Orleans. They traveled to the "white goods" dump far out in New Orleans east and spoke to workers and captured astonishing video of the mass destruction of a city's appliances. View video here. 

Their return to Louisiana marks a continuation of their dedication to interviewing, recording, and doing the work of the poet in the form of giving voice and bearing witness to the trauma in the world. They will be spending the rest of their trip traveling through southern Louisiana speaking to residents affected by the Gulf Oil Spill and BP's clean up efforts. Here in New Orleans they began this task by interviewing Buras activist Kindra Arnesen, mother and wife to a commercial fisherman who was one of the first to speak out about BP's insidious way of handling the spill and the community. Even in the wake of her family's sickness and need to be detoxed, including her two young children, she continues to fight and speak out about BP's blatant destruction of the coast, its waters and animals, and its communities. 

As I sat there watching Nicole and Pierre interview Kindra, I remembered the feeling of having someone listen and the urgency of the world outside of our sphere of residents and those affected to be privy to what we knew on the "inside" living as we were in the wake of destruction. This is what poetry does: it is the lifeline that continues to speak up long after the people who fight grow weary. It is the living document that roots itself into consciousness in the wake of seemingly endless lies fueled by corruption and greed. In the end, it thwarts silence and the death of what we seem to be screaming into the abyss. 

Nicole Peyrafitte performing excerpts from her Bi-Continental Chowder at 17 Poets!

This is going to be one hell of a text to engage with, hopefully sooner than later!

Nicole's humor shines through as she creates a sacred song in the long tradition of oral poets who sang the glories of the body and celebrated the mysteries of fertility and life. Peyrafitte creates a stage presence that travels from sandy shores to tramp about in Olson's words to refute Freud and then asks the audience to laugh, to poke fun at in the highest gesture of understanding: that we embrace and get comfortable in our skins, that we understand the deep mystery and the long history that we wade into when we use (& misuse) language. 

Pierre Joris' long poem weaving a line in the sand across continents and amid questions

from war to the inability to decipher the knowledge that is parceled out via the media

to the empathy sprung from embracing the language and the geography of the "other"

and the mirages we struggle against.

I've been deeply intrigued with a new collection of essays about Joris and his poetry and poetics ever since he put the book in my hand. Cartographies of the In-Between is a comprehensive examination of a life in letters from translator to poet to bridge between various schools of poetry emanating in a Nomadic poetics to anthologist and mentor. I've just finished the first section "Filiations" which includes an essay by Jennifer Moxley which takes a close look at Canto Diurno #1 as well as Joris' relationship with "hearth" and "home" in his poetry. I was moved to return his Canto Diurno in its entirety as I have it in his Selected Poems: Poasis. Instead of looking back at the patriarchal influences as this essay does, (and quite thoroughly), I find myself interested in looking forward to how this poem manifests itself in future poems: the idea of capturing a day of poetry as we see in later works like Bernadette Mayer's Midwinter Day or in an expanded length of time such as the experimental diaryesque prose of Lyn Heijinian's My Life. I wonder how we could trace forward a matrilineal line emerging from Joris' "shaking off the fathers." Franca Bellarsi has an informative essay drawing parallels as well as divergent paths in the works of the Beats, some translated by Joris, and Joris' own work and future poetics practice. Christopher Rizzo examines the use of culture in both Olson and Joris' poems ( and to some degree Duncan, as well)  and how Joris' poetics is influenced by, but in many ways not contained by Olson's declarations of projection and "page as field" poetics. Rizzo also examines how his role of translator informs his poetics reinforcing the view of the vernacular and language at any level as the "rhizomatic" force that enters the body and spreads out navigated by experience and place rather than by any steady teleological movement.  Dale Smith looks at Joris' book A Single Minded Bestiary: Common Fox using this text as a springboard to examine Joris' use of the totem animal, the function of translation and self in between countries, the influences of Dorn and Creeley, and Joris' role as a "social imaginary." This first section ends with an interview between Joris and editor Peter Cockelbergh which helps to clarify and ground some of the previous essays. In this form, we get to hear from the poet, some of his thoughts on lineage especially in regards to early influences as well as his emphasis on "breath" and how this informs his use of the term "rhizomatic" in terms of his poetics. 

Cartographies of the In-Between


Contributors:
Louis Armand, Tony Baker, Franca Bellarsi, Mohammed Bennis, Charles Bernstein, Nicole Brossard, Geert Buelens, Clive Bush, Corina Ciocarlie, Peter Cockelbergh, Clayton Eshleman, Allen Fisher, Christine Hume, Robert Kelly, Abdelwahab Meddeb, Jennifer Moxley, Carrie Noland, Alice Notley, Marjorie Perloff, Nicole Peyrafitte, Jean Portante, Christopher Rizzo, Jerome Rothenberg, Dale Smith, Habib Tengour.

About the editor:
Writer, scholar and translator, Peter Cockelbergh studied at the universities of Antwerp and Leuven (Belgium), at the EHESS in Paris, and is currently working on a Ph.D. at the Technische Universitat Darmstadt (Germany). For a number of years, he has been reading, writing on and translating Pierre Joris's poetry and essays (into Dutch, French & English), and has recently worked on the author's papers and archives. 

17 Poets! Upcoming Events

Upcoming Events At 17 Poets! Literary and Performance Series

Gold Mine Saloon, 701 Dauphine, New Orleans, LA 

Poetry in the French Quarter Since 2003

Every Thursday, 8PM

www.17poets.com

Poets Dave Brinks and Bill Lavender, Mardi Gras, 2008

February 9: Bill Lavender signs and reads from his new book Memory Wing 
(Black Widow Press, 2011)

Flautist Eluard Burt,  March 2006

February 16th: Musical Performances and Tributes to flautist and mentor Eluard Burt,

with readings and performances by Kichea Burt, Dave Brinks, Lee Meitzen Grue, 

Eric Burt, Cyril Neville, Gayneille Neville, and

more.  

 Nicole Peyrafitte, 2005

Pierre Joris, 2005

John Sinclair, 2006

February 23: John Sinclair performs with his Blues Scholars, Performance by

Albany poets Pierre Joris and Nicole Peyrafitte

March 1: Poet Rodger Kamenetz

March 8: Poets Arturo Pfister and Valentine Pierce

March 15th: NYC Poet Bill Zavatsky and  Dr. Jerry Ward, Jr.

March 22: TBA

March 29: Fiction Writer Moira Crone reads and signs her new book from 
UNO Press, The Not Yet

April 5: jazz beat poet ruth weiss

April 12: Bruce Andrews

April 19th: Baton Rouge Poet Chris Shipman reads and signs his new book

 along with poet Vincent Celluci

April 26: Maxine Cassin Tribute

More Dates Coming Soon. All features followed by the open mic. 

All images copyright 17 Poets! Literary and Performance Series and Megan Burns.

Nicole Peyrafitte in New Orleans: A Poet's Response

Check out all the awesome updates/repairs/ renovations nearing completion at the building, beautiful photo taken by Nicole Peyrafitte. Read her amazing blog entry about her trip to New Orleans. I love to see the city from other people's points of view. Check out all her amazing food recipes as well: http://nicolepeyrafitte.com/blog/

Here is the meal she was gracious enough to feast us with while here:

Quail with a fig sauce, fresh figs, pasta with black bacon and green bean medley.

"Fast Food" Nicole Style as she calls it.

Fantastic!

Just got in the mail two new books for review, one is from one of the editors of a press I am liking very much right now. Counterpath press is putting out some beautiful poetry books. This book is by one of its two editors, Julie Carr, and is put out by CoffeeHouse Press as a winner of the National Poetry Series award. It's titled "Sarah-Of Fragments and Lines" and is yet another book I have been reading lately that is in part about mothering and conception, etc. So far, it's stunning. I can only read parts of it at a time as it speaks about loss, mothers, death, love, grief...so much to take in and such breathtaking phrases.

New Poetry in New Orleans:
Just got word from Verna Press that their newest book of poems is out:

Unsolicited Poems
by David Rowe
$17.00

http://www.vernapress.com/store.html

Silent Art Auction Preview for Protect Our Coastline Benefit

Here is just a preview of the great art up for Auction at the Gold Mine Saloon, August 29th, 5PM
701 Dauphine St. All proceeds benefit Protectourcoastline.org

For a schedule of performances, visit 17poets.com or goldminesaloon.net


Signed/ Framed George Rodrigue Saints Blue Dog





Signed/ Numbered/ Framed 1992 Jazz Fest Poster, Irma Thomas


Also: 1997 Numbered/ Framed Jazz Fest Poster Signed by The Neville Brothers





Mixed Media Art Collage by Tracey McTague
(Framed)















Acrylic on Wood/ Board (2 Pieces) by Tasha Robbins

Also Pieces by New Orleans Artist Dr. Bob and New York Artist Nicole Peyrafitte as well as several jewelry pieces from Renaissance

"All-Hands-on-Deck"
Sunday, August 29, 2010 @ 5:00 p.m.
A BENEFIT
for ProtectOurCoastline.org
at GOLD MINE SALOON
701 Dauphine Street, 504-586-0745

featuring

The Saintsations from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m.

Rockin' Dopsie, Jr. & The Zydeco Twisters w/ special guest Cyril Neville perform at 7:00 p.m.

Artist George Rodrigue Silent Auction of Blue Dog/Saints Art from 5:00 to 9:30 p.m.

Celebrity Bartender WWL Tv Sportscaster Juan Kincaid from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m.

La Voix de Nola Poetique feat. Dave Brinks, Megan Burns, Lee Meitzen Grue, Nicole Peyrafitte, Jerry Ward Jr. perform at 5:30 p.m.

Food by WoW Cafe & Wingery (uptown location)

15 $ donation, All Proceeds benefit ProtectOurCoastline.org

Every donation HELPS our Louisiana Fisherman and the Barrier Island Restoration Project!

For More info, visit: www.protectourcoastline.org