John Watson

Translucerations

A Rigmarole

2021

Contents

Translucerations

Download Chapbook PDF

First Impatient Translator:

Welcome to the Institute of Transluceration

(Formerly the Translators’ Guild).

It is determined that, as from this moment,

Our practice will encourage greater recklessness,

And allow interjections and tangents

Like rockets which reach escape velocity.

Second Impatient Translator:

Let us make Lowell’s freedoms with Montale

Seem by comparison timid. Let us

Recognise that the originals will remain

Long after our flamboyances have faded.

Therefore, even if our extravagances

Are only for our private use,

To be shared on our annual meringue picnic

Under flowering trees whose names we forget

With privileged sightings of a spiralling kestrel,

Let us throw caution to the mistral.