This evening I thought I'd post a number of translations of Catfish McDaris' poems by various poets and native speakers. Enjoy!
Catfish McDaris Poems Translated
Aida
She is always there
my only true love forever
her smile is my soul.
61 Winters
Some people live hard
and write about it. Some
write about what they think
It is to live hard. I think it's
easy to distinguish the phonies
from the real thing.
Age does not mean wisdom,
it does mean history though.
To write well you have to have
courage, curiosity, and tenacity.
California
Dance during summer
making love to the raindrops
farmers smile at crops.
We All Go Away Like an Echo of Sad Laughter
As I age I no longer wipe
away the tears, neither does
God, we watch the hungry
on the church steps searching
in the dirty melting snow.
Poems Translated into Yoruba by Prince Adewale Oreshade from Nigeria
Aida
Ibe lo ma n wa ni gbogbo igba
Ololufe mi kàn soso titilai lai
Erin re ni okan mi.
61 Winters
Awon kàn ngbe igbesi aiye inira
Won de ma fi ko nipare. Awon kàn
Si ma n ko owun ti won ro
Wipe oje igbesi aiye inira. Aba mi
Ni wipe irorun laaje lati mo iyato
Awon ofente ati awon ti oyanju.
Ojo ori otumosi oye,
Sugbon ole tumosi itan.
Latile ko dada, eyan gbodoni.
Akikanju, ojumito, ati ifarada.
California
Jo nigba orun
Somo omi ojo
Erin agbe si irugbin.
Poems Translated into Chinese by Changming Yuan from China
Aida
爱达
她总是无时不在
我唯一永恒的真爱
其笑容乃我之灵魂
61 Winters
六十一个冬季
有些人生活艰辛
而用笔抒写。有些人
则笔耕之所思
生活必然艰辛。我想
很容易将伪善
区别于真实。
年龄并不等于智慧
但它却意味着历史。
要写出佳作就必须有
勇气、好奇心及坚韧精神。
California
加利福尼亚州
在夏日翩翩起舞
与雨滴做爱正酣
农夫对着庄稼微笑。
Poems Translated into Arabic by Ali Znaidi from Tunisia
Translated into French by Eric Dejaeger from Belgium
Elle est toujours présente
son sourire est mon âme.
Certaines personnes ont une vie dure
et en parle dans leurs écrits. Certaines
les fermiers sourient aux récoltes.
Translated into Spanish by Aida Elizabeth McDaris from Mexico
Aida
Ella siempre esta ahi
mi unico amor por la eternidad
su sonrisa es mi alma.
61 Inviernos
Algunes gentes tiener una vida dificil
y escriben acerca de ella
otros escriben lo que piensan
Tener una vida dura creo que es
facil distinguir a los
falsos de los autenticos
Edad no significa sabiduria
pero quire decir historia
para ser un buen escritor
tienes que tener, valentia,
curiosidad y tenacidad.
California
Baila en el verano
haciendo amor a las
gotas de agua
los campesinos sonrien
a sus casechas.
Translated into Bangla by Nilimesh Dutta from India
Aida
আইডা
শুধু
তোমাকেই ভালবেসেছি সারাজীবন
তোমার হাসি আমার আলো
61 Winters
৬১ টা শীত
কিছু লোক রগড়ায়
আর সেটা নিয়ে লেখে। কিছু লোক
লেখে কল্পনায়।
বেঁচে থাকবার কষ্টটা করতে হয়।
আমি খুব সহজেই সং দের
আসল জিনিসটা থেকে আলাদা করতে পারি।
বয়স মানে বোধ নয়,
ইতিহাসও নয়।
লিখতে গেলে তোমার থাকতে হবে
সাহস, কৌতুহল আর লেগে থাকা।
California
ক্যালিফোর্নিয়া
গ্রীষ্মের নাচ
বৃষ্টিফোঁটার সঙ্গে ভালোবাসা
চাষিরা ফসলের দিকে তাকিয়ে হাসছে
We All Go Away Like an Echo of Sad Laughter
As I age I no longer wipe away the tears, neither does God, we watch the hungry on the church steps searching in the dirty melting snow.
আমরা সবাই কষ্টের হাসির একটা প্রতিধ্বনির মত চলে যাব
যত বুড়ো হচ্ছি, কান্নাগুলো আর মুছতে পারিনা, (ঈশ্বরটাও পারেনা), আমরা শুধু দেখে যাই গির্জার সিঁড়িতে নোংরা বরফ খুঁটে যায় খিদে।
Catfish McDaris poems translated
into Polish by Piotr Siwecki from Poland
Aida
She is always there
my only true love forever
her smile is my soul.
Aida
Zawsze
tu jest
moja
jedyna na zawsze prawdziwa miłość
jej
uśmiech jest moją duszą.
61 Winters
Some people live hard
and write about it. Some
write about what they think
It is to live hard. I think
it's
easy to distinguish the
phonies
from the real thing.
Age does not mean wisdom,
it does mean history
though.
To write well you have to have
courage, curiosity, and tenacity.
61 zim
Niektórzy żyją ostro
i piszą o tym. Niektórzy
piszą o tym, co, ich zdaniem,
Znaczy żyć ostro. Myślę sobie, że
łatwo odróżnić ściemę
od prawdziwego życia.
Starość nie musi iść w parze z mądrością,
ale to jednak kawał historii.
Żeby dobrze pisać, potrzebujesz
odwagi, ciekawości i wytrwałości.
California
Dance during summer
making love to the raindrops
farmers smile at crops.
Kalifornia
Tańcząc latem
kochając
się z kroplami deszczu
farmerzy
uśmiechają się do plonów.
In addition, here is a link to Catfish's reading on Dr. Michael Anthony Ingram's BlogTalk radio show: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/dc-poetry-project-/2015/04/16/the-power-of-poetics-welcomes-internationally-acclaimed-poet-catfish-mcdaris
Unfortunately, I could not listen to the whole show as the Shockwave on my computer crashed.
If you are online at 8 pm on Wednesday, April 29, Changming and Allen Yuan will be the next guests on The Power of Poetics.
At 8 PM Eastern Time on April 29th
Bridging Cultures featuring Guest Poets Dr. Yuan Changming and Allen Qing Yuan
In honor of World Poetry Day (March 21, 2015), the host and staff of the Power of Poetics Blogtalk Show are proud to announce that the world's most widely published poetry author, Dr. Yuan Changming and his celebrated son, Allen Qing Yuan will be the featured guest poets on the Wednesday, April 29, 2015 broadcast. The show will also feature other poets from around the globe. Renown Poet Catfish McDaris will serve as co-host of the program. Yuan Changming,an 8-time Pushcart Prize nominee, and author of 4 chapbooks, is the world's most widely published poetry author who speaks Mandarin but writes English. Since his first poem was published in mid-2005, Changming's poetry has appeared in 1019 literary publications across 32 countries, including Best Canadian Poetry (2009,12,14), BestNewPoemsOnline, London Magazine and Threepenny Review. With a PhD in English from the University of Saskatchewan, Yuan currently tutors and co-edits Poetry Pacific with his teenage poet son Allen Qing Yuan in Vancouver, British Columbia. Allen Qing Yuan, born in Vancouver in 1995, is a two time Pushcart Prize nominee and the author of Traffic Light (2013). Co-editing Poetry Pacific, Allen currently attends the University of British Columbia as a business major. Since grade 10, Allen has had poetry appearing in more than 70 literary publications across 16 countries, which include Cordite Poetry Review, Literary Review of Canada, Shampoo, and Spillway. poetrypacific.blogspot.ca
The FREE call-in number is (646) 716-8754. We may be physically located in Washington DC, but our love for poetry is worldwide! If there are questions, please call the DC Poetry Project Office at 202-540-0327 or email letpoetryring@gmx.com.
(by Dr. Yuan Changming)
移民
为从你母语的豪强逻辑
逃出生天
你徘徊，再徘徊
穿越地球的长度和宽度
将你的旧我，交付于另一种语法
另一整套对你的嘴唇和笔尖
都很陌生的语法规则
从而扩展你心灵的地图
远远超出家庭和避风港
然而，在此期间，它却成为
这个所选语言一切令人费解之
悖论的殖民地，例如：
快沙流可能会很慢
拳击圈实是方形
而几内亚豚既不是猪
也不是来自几内亚
一如你和我
Immigration
To escape from the tyrannical logic
Of your mother tongue
You wandered, wandering
Through earth’s length and breadth
Subjecting your old self to another syntax
A whole set of grammatical rules
Strangely new to your lips and tips
To expand the map of your mind
Far beyond your home and haven
Yet in the meantime it becomes colonized
By all the puzzling paradoxes
Of this chosen language, for example:
Quicksand can be very slow
Boxing rings are in fact square
And a guinea pig is neither a pig
Nor is it from Guinea
Like you or me
Of your mother tongue
You wandered, wandering
Through earth’s length and breadth
Subjecting your old self to another syntax
A whole set of grammatical rules
Strangely new to your lips and tips
To expand the map of your mind
Far beyond your home and haven
Yet in the meantime it becomes colonized
By all the puzzling paradoxes
Of this chosen language, for example:
Quicksand can be very slow
Boxing rings are in fact square
And a guinea pig is neither a pig
Nor is it from Guinea
Like you or me
I'll finish up with a little (international) music for you.
Mulatu Astatke begins with Tezeta (Nostalgia). This version is on an album dating from the late 1960s/early 1970s: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wy-v-FgiUD8
This video is of a more recent performance in New York: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f5HNXytisOM
This song was written by Mulatu Astatke, but it is performed by Dengue Fever: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pq6OJixIU2Y
Dengue Fever is more well known for its covers of Cambodian pop from the 1960s and 1970s: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dsRKo6PWLA
Here is the original Cambodian pop -- Ros Sereysothea's "Flowers in the Rain": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_0fxMIzFN0