I have been working on this sonnet during the long night (tomorrow classes start and my sleep schedule is all thrown off, whaa!) and wanted to share it with you. It is a rough draft. Very rough. But life is like that in the wee hours of the morning before my second cup of coffee, liquid goodness. Cheers!
Now cup your hands. Hold them out like begging
or prayer. In that space where your palms do not
touch think of something decaying, something
live. Breathe in the goatish air of swamps, what
others call “swamp pussy.” Now cup your hands.
Hold them out to implore, pray. All the rot
of your swamplands is burning. Your swamplands
on fire in your poor, cupped hands. You cannot
let go. I'll pray for you and your goatish,
dim soul; a beast led to slaughter. Don't hope
the goat knows the end of the rope. When prayer
stops. When the goat is pulled forward. I wish
I will never see that. The knife, the rope
and that terrible motion in the air.
They say the proof of being a poet is when other people want to publish your work. In that case my friend Erin B. is poetry powerhouse! She has two books of poetry out this year:
My chapbook Body Of Water is now available from Thorngate Road. It was awarded the 2007 Frank O'Hara Award. Body Of Water is a garland of sonnets, fifteen braided ones, from my first manuscript, which interrogates boundaries, desire, & awe.
and:
My chapbook manuscript The Urge To Believe Is Stronger Than Belief Itself has been accepted by Cherry Pie Press. It should be published in time for Summer Solstice. The Urge To Believe Is Stronger Than Belief Itself is a cross-genre work documenting someone very close to me's experience beating cancer & my fumbling & righting as I tried to understand what was happening to her & to me as a result.
So the book is done. There were a few snaggles that occurred along the way. For one, due to the complexities of U.S. copyright law, it is unclear whether all of Federico's work is covered in the Copyright Term Extension Act or not. Technically, legally, are translations their own entity and the property of the translator or are they "variations" of the original poem and thus subject to copyright infringement if published? I don't know, yet. So I did what seemed to be the best choice. I removed all the original Spanish text from the book. Except for the titles the entire book is in English, which is a shame since I had been hoping to publish a bilingual edition. However, the glories of print on demand mean I can simply go into the text itself and replace the Spanish if the Garcia Lorca estate allows me to publish the originals as well. We shall see.
One of the wonderful things about knowing talented people is promoting them so the world can see just how amazing they are! My friend Shelley (her motto is: Life * Love * Coffee) has some fantastic cards up at Cafepress, I urge you all to go look, drool over and buy!
Nessun dorma! Nessun dorma!
Tu pure, o, Principessa,
nella tua fredda stanza,
guardi le stelle
che tremano d'amore
e di speranza.
Ma il mio mistero è chiuso in me,
il nome mio nessun saprà!
No, no, sulla tua bocca lo dirò
quando la luce splenderà!
Ed il mio bacio scioglierà il silenzio
che ti fa mia!
(Il nome suo nessun saprà!…
e noi dovrem, ahime, morir!)
Dilegua, o notte!
Tramontate, stelle!
Tramontate, stelle!
All'alba vincerò!
vincerò, vincerò!
Opera has it all; sex, mindless violence, terrible jumps in logic and plot no one seems to care about. Nessun dorma is an aria from the final act of Giacomo Puccini's opera Turandot, and is one of the best known tenor arias in all opera. Loosely translated as "None Shall Sleep," it is sung by Il principe ignoto, The Unknown Prince, who falls in love at first sight with the charming but spoiled Princess Turandot. The entire opera revolves around the idea that anyone who wishes to wed Turandot must first answer her three riddles and if they fail they will be beheaded. Why anyone would wish to do this is beyond me but that is opera-logic for you.
Even if you know nothing about opera, you have probably seen Luciano Pavarotti sing this tune, it is one of his signature pieces.
Shelby showed me this 1998 video of Aretha Franklin stealing the Grammy Awards at New York's Radio City Music Hall. Apparently she …
… stepped in at the last instant for ailing opera star Luciano Pavarotti … and blowing everybody away with Nessun dorma, the hero's big aria from Puccini's Turandot … Franklin sang the Unknown Prince's signature number in Pavarotti's key (three steps lower than her own) with a 72-piece orchestra after a mere eight minutes [!] of preparation backstage.
When I was done listening to it all I could think was "Bless the Queen of Soul!" I love this!
None shall sleep!…
None shall sleep!
Even you, my Princess,
in your chill room,
watching the stars
that tremble with love and with hope.
But my secret is hidden within me,
no one shall know my name …
No! … No! …
But on your mouth I will tell it when the light shines.
And my kiss will dissolve the silence that makes you mine!… (No one will know his name and we must, alas, die.)
Vanish, O night!
Set, stars! Set, stars!
At dawn, I will win!
I will win! I will win!
