Assorted rambling.

It's paper procrastination season, so I stumbled across an article by Ezra Pound the other day, reviewing a volume of translated poetry from Bohemia, which conveniently enough is now available in its entirety online. It was rather serendipitous, I'd been meaning to delve into some more regional poetry, but hadn't really gotten around to it.

The book contains some pretty painful translations, but also some amazing work. Pound writes of Bezruc and his Songs of Silesia, "[Bezruc] is the truth where our "red-bloods" and magazine socialists are usually a rather boresome pose."

Here's the translation, available in the original Czech at http://www.archive.org/stream/modernczechpoetr00selviala/modernczechpoetr00selviala_djvu.txt as well,

THE PITMAN.

I dig, under the earth I dig;

Boulders glittering like the scales of a serpent I dig:

Beneath Polska Ostrava I dig.

My lamp is quenched, upon my brow has fallen

My hair, matted and clammy with sweat;

My eyes are shot with bitterness and gall;

My veins and my skull are clouded with vapour;

From beneath my nails gushes forth crimson blood;

Beneath Polska Ostrava I dig.

The broad hammer I smite upon the pit;

At Salmovec I dig,

At Rychvald I dig, and at Petrvald I dig.

Hard by Godula my wife freezes and whimpers,
Famishing children weep at her bosom;
I dig, under the earth I dig.

Sparks flash from the pit, sparks flash from my eyes;

At Dombrova I dig, at Orlova I dig,

At Poremba I dig, and beneath Lazy I dig.

Above me overhead rings the clatter of hoofs,

The count is riding trough the hamlet, the countess with dainty hand

Urges on the horses and her rosebud face is smiling,

I dig, the mattock I upraise;

My wife, livid-faced, trudges to the castle,

Craving for bread, when the milk has dried up in her breasts.

Good-hearted is my lord,

Of yellow masonry is his castle,

Beneath the castle is dinning and bursting the Ostravice.

By the gates two black bitches are scowling.

Wherefore she went to the castle to pester and beg?

Grows rye on my lord's field for the drab of a pitman?

At Hrusov I dig and at Michalkovice.

What will betide my sons, what will betide my daughters,

On the day when they drag out my corpse from the pit?

My sons shall go on digging and digging,

At Karvinna digging;

And my daughters, how fares it with daughters of pitmen?

How if one day I should fling my accursed lamp into the pit,

And stiffen my bended neck,

Clench my left hand and stride forth and onward,

And in a sweeping curve from the earth to the skyline upwards

Should upraise my hammer and my flashing eyes,

Yonder beneath God's sunshine!

"Silesian Songs" (1909)

The area that is now the Czech Republic moved the smoothest and most willingly of any nation into communism due to it's pre-existing level of industry and secularity, and with poetry like this, it's even more understandable. It's not subtle, but it has a rhythm for marching.

The painting is by Konrad Magi, an amazing Estonian artist I encountered for the first time at the KuMu in Tallinn. Their expressionist collection is breath-taking in person, and made the trip to Estonia worth it on its own, changed my understanding of art. This one seemed to fit the poem.

On a side note, Ukraine's one to watch tomorrow. The hryvnia has been plummeting against the dollar and my Ukrainian roommate's family called and told her that tomorrow Ukraine will likely default on it's loans from Russia. Ukraine has been in negotiations with Moscow this week over supposed debts to Gazprom and the new price of oil. For the past three years Ukraine has been plagued by these disputes with Russia, resulting in massive gas shortages as Russia turns off the pipelines. Ukraine was also one of the nations hit hardest by the US financial crisis, to the point that Ukrainians are only allowed to withdraw small amounts from the bank every day now to prevent total collapse. Defense Minister Yekhanurov also announced today that Ukraine would be building up troops along the Russian border in light of the Georgian conflict, though his timing is certainly also indicative of what's running through the mind of Ukrainian politicians right now. Politically Ukraine is paralyzed since the collapse of the coalition in Parliament. The World Bank is prepared to give Ukraine a $500 million loan, but it remains to be seen if that will be anywhere near enough. Meanwhile, Ukraine observes the 75th anniversary of the Stalinist-orchestrated great famine which killed between 4-6 million Ukrainians, a third of the nation. Unfortunately, with it's disputed borders, internal corruption problems, lack of infrastructure, political and economic instability, and reliance on Russia, Ukraine isn't moving any closer to the membership in the EU that would hopefully assure its peaceful and democratic future, and how it's economy fares in the following months may seal that fate.

And on that gloomy note, have a good thanksgiving! Eat lots of the infamous cranberry sauce for me in SC! I'll call and you can tell me how many tries it took this year :)