Cinque poesie inedite di Adrian C. Louis - Traduzione di Maurizio Brancaleoni

Scrittore statunitense di origini native, Adrian C. Louis nasce nel 1946 nello stato del Nevada. Laureatosi in Scrittura creativa alla Brown University nel Rhode Island, affianca all’attività letteraria quella di giornalista e insegnante. Due volte vincitore del prestigioso Pushcart Prize, Louis ha pubblicato numerosi libri di poesia, ma anche un romanzo, Skins (1995), di cui è uscita un’omonima trasposizione cinematografica nel 2002, e una raccolta di racconti, "Wild Indians & Other Creatures" (1996). Caratteristico dell’opera di Louis è il contrasto tra una realtà prosaica e disperante dove regnano consumismo e omologazione e ciò che resta di una spiritualità quasi estinta.

***Leggi le poesie in italiano e in originale***

Due poesie di E. E. Cummings - Traduzione di Maurizio Brancaleoni

* Tutti i diritti sono riservati. Le seguenti traduzioni non possono essere riprodotte in alcuna forma e su alcun supporto senza previa autorizzazione. *

la mia dolce vecchia etcetera

la mia dolce vecchia etcetera

zietta Lucy durante l'ultima

guerra sapeva dirti e cosa

più importante ti diceva il

motivo per cui tutti

combattevano [...]

***Continua a leggere le poesie***

...

Interview with THEE ND (Nicole Duncan)

Hi Nicole,

Thank you for agreeing to this interview. The first question is pretty obvious: Why is your page called ‘Thee Nd’? Is it just a play on the pronunciation or is there a more profound meaning to it? Is it a reference to global pollution and its terrifying consequences or a more private matter?

The answer is yes to all of the above meanings, Maurizio, and including my initials into the mix. The genesis being having watched the completion of many films and there graphically would be my initials in capitals and I liked how it looked and sounded and meant in my head and have used THEE ND as my artist name since I started making art, and as time has progressed, it has become even more evident and to me that – yes -  it is now sadly a statement of the decline of our civilisation and our planet as we knew it .

                       

What is it that usually prompts you to take a picture and how important is the subsequent editing phase?

I am surrounded by beauty and precious moments. Things, scenes, happen spontaneously around me, I rely on chance, serendipity and opportunity. I take pleasure in capturing and creating the very beautiful and the inescapable through image though not always necessarily by intention, but as I have observed it is a consequence of many factors and some additional unexplainable force. Culminating in a photo collage or the basis for a design, or pure straight unadulterated photography.

                   

One of your favourite subjects is the forest raven. What is a ‘corvus tasmanicus’ to you? 

They are absolutely fascinating to me, though I cannot say I am the same to them ha! As they are very furtive and highly alert beautiful creatures, and resist any possible contact, and they are very aware and wary of me photographing them …these particular Raven's eyes have a whitish blue iris and you can see and feel their strong life force and intensity. I am very fortunate as I live very close to the edge, on a clifftop, at bird height, overlooking the sea, which has a very old gnarled casuarina tree which lurches out over the cliff and "my Ravens" thankfully continue to visit it …ever suspicious of close encounters, I must photograph them through my house's large windows, or I can capture them in flight during their travels, or photograph others roadside eating roadkill carrion of possums and wallabies …they seem to appear everywhere I go - even in the city !

Nature in all its forms (landscapes, animals, natural phenomena) seems to play a pivotal role in your art. Besides, these photos alternate with depictions of plants releasing gases in the air. Do you seek to raise awareness of what we could lose in the not-so-far future?

More-so statements ... I am glad if I do raise awareness about "The Great Decline". Nature and all that word encompasses is moment by moment threatened, and being irreversibly destroyed on all fronts, it is losing against Man's unstoppable disregard and insatiable greed ...I am pessimistic about any retrievable outcome or viable reversal of it.

  

Throughout the creative process, when do you know that you’re done with a photo and that what you’ve got is exactly what you wanted to obtain?

What is stimulating to me is the not knowing, light bulb moments, in being surprised, watching lucky "accidents" occur, - and for the feeling of knowing when an image is complete in itself. I wholeheartedly agree with the great Jean Cocteau that "Art is a marriage between the conscious and the unconscious."  

                 

I’ve noticed you also took pictures of the Pausiris mummy exhibition at the MONA. What is your relationship with your surroundings and your country and to what extent do you think place and local history and traditions influence the individual, both in a positive and a negative way?

Ah the wonderland masterpiece that is David Walsh's and architect Nonda Katsilidis’s xMONA+ ! - to which I am a frequent visitor and great admirer - and not just for the art exhibited there as xMONA+ is the product of combined personal vision artfully executed making its vibe extraordinary ....now Pausiris lies serenely sombre, secreted below in his chamber there, suspended in centuries of time and timelessness, it is a powerful exhibit ...and I visit the chamber to feel it ....

I really love Tasmania and I am very fortunate and appreciative of living here even though it has an extremely unpleasant early history during the British colonisation of it and their deliberate genocide and atrocious treatment of the original inhabitants ...to me there is no lingering pall, just a strong bridging connection with all past inhabitants particularly felt through experiencing the same topography, nature, seasons and skies.

Nowadays an enormous number of people are able to share their artistic output but making even little money out of it to pay the bills seems to be harder than ever, even for the professionals. Do you think governments should support and encourage noteworthy artists without connections?

Yes - and by doing so it also reinforces the value of Art.

        

Thanks again for your time.

THEE ND'S related links:

'THEE ND' page on Facebook

'THEE ND''s profile on THE ARTSTACK 

CONCORSO LETTERARIO "STANZA SVELATA" - 1° EDIZIONE

BANDO DEL CONCORSO LETTERARIO NAZIONALE 

“STANZA SVELATA” PER POESIE INEDITE

“Leisure Spot” (http://leisurespotblog.blogspot.com/), blog bilingue a cura di Maurizio Brancaleoni, indice il concorso letterario nazionale “Stanza Svelata” per poesie inedite in lingua italiana.

REGOLAMENTO

Art. 1 Modalità di partecipazione

Il concorso si rivolge a tutti i cittadini di nazionalità italiana che abbiano compiuto il 18° anno di età entro la data del 1° settembre 2018. Sono ammesse esclusivamente poesie inedite in lingua italiana. Il tema è libero (“stanza” è da intendere come “strofa”) e non sono previsti limiti di lunghezza. Per “inedite” si intende mai pubblicate né in forma cartacea né in formato elettronico o comparse in altra forma sul web.

Art. 2 Invio del materiale

La partecipazione è gratuita. Ogni autore può partecipare con massimo tre poesie da inviare insieme ai dati personali (nome, cognome, data di nascita, e-mail, numero di telefono, eventuale sito web/blog) in un unico file in formato doc, odt o docx all’indirizzo e-mail mbmbrancaleoni@gmail.com. A tutti i partecipanti sarà data conferma di ricezione entro una settimana al massimo. La scadenza per l’invio del materiale sarà annunciata una settimana prima sul blog “Leisure Spot” al raggiungimento di un numero sufficiente di opere ritenute meritevoli di pubblicazione.

Art. 3 Notifica selezione e premi

A tutti gli autori le cui opere saranno selezionate sarà inviata notifica via e-mail. Le opere scelte saranno incluse in un’antologia poetica. I primi tre classificati avranno altresì l’opportunità di essere intervistati via e-mail per “Leisure Spot” nei mesi successivi alla pubblicazione dell’antologia. Una poesia del primo classificato sarà inoltre tradotta in inglese e sarà pubblicata su “Leisure Spot” sia in originale che in traduzione.

Art. 4 Cessione dei diritti

Accettando di partecipare al concorso, gli autori garantiscono che le opere presentate sono originali. “Leisure Spot” non si assume alcuna responsabilità per eventuali plagi o utilizzazioni illecite. Gli autori concedono inoltre il diritto di pubblicare le opere in un’antologia nel caso in cui le loro opere siano selezionate. Gli autori acconsentono altresì fin da ora alla pubblicazione su “Leisure Spot” di una delle poesie con cui hanno partecipato nonché alla sua traduzione in inglese in caso di vittoria del primo premio. I diritti delle singole opere restano comunque di proprietà dei singoli autori.

Art. 5 Pubblicazione dell’antologia

L’antologia poetica, in formato elettronico, sarà scaricabile gratuitamente su “Leisure Spot”. In seguito l’ebook sarà anche acquistabile sul sito “Lulu” (https://www.lulu.com/it). Se dovesse esserci un numero di richieste sufficienti in tal senso, si valuterà anche la pubblicazione in formato cartaceo tramite “Lulu”.

Art. 6 Tutela dei dati personali

Ai sensi del D.Lgs. 196/2003 i partecipanti acconsentono al trattamento e alla diffusione dei dati personali per lo svolgimento degli adempimenti inerenti al concorso. Nel rispetto del Regolamento UE n. 679/2016 e per riflettere le modifiche a seguito dell'entrata in vigore del GDPR del 25 maggio 2018, gli indirizzi di posta elettronica dei partecipanti saranno conservati in modo sicuro e saranno utilizzati esclusivamente per inviare informative sul concorso ed altre attività legate a “Leisure Spot” e in nessun caso i dati saranno ceduti a terzi. Per qualsiasi altra informazione scrivere a mbmbrancaleoni@gmail.com.

Iginio Ugo Tarchetti - Disjecta (E-book gratuito)

"Quando bacio il tuo labbro profumato,/ Cara fanciulla, non posso obbliare/ Che un bianco teschio vi è sotto celato." Questi tre versi sembrano riassumere perfettamente la natura eternamente dualistica della poesia di Tarchetti, sempre in bilico tra l'amore idealistico e la consapevolezza di come la morte alteri e distrugga. Questo e-book ripropone l'edizione Zanichelli del 1879 con la prefazione di Domenico Milelli e si divide in due sezioni: le poesie propriamente dette e una serie di brevi composizioni poetiche in prosa raccolte sotto il titolo 'Canti del cuore' che lo stesso Tarchetti, pur schermendosi, definisce "una forma quasi nuova di letteratura".

*Prima edizione elettronica: settembre 2018

*Foto di copertina: Tomasz Kowaluk-Łukasiewicz 

Scarica l’ebook gratuito:

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Review: Patrik Sampler, "The Ocean Container"

“All of my dreams and most of my thoughts happen inside my shipping container – to such an extent I’ve started calling it an ocean container. […] I am not referring to something on the surface of the sea, but something deep within it, and a sense of limitlessness” (p.88).

The Ocean Container starts right from the fall of the curtain, with his protagonist’s physical and mental decline mimicking and epitomizing a moribund fauna in the grip of global pollution. Then, it begins again – from Act I this time. Following the electoral victory of an all-controlling political system quite aptly named Economy, the narrator, a former environmental activist (and an artist, occasionally), is forced into hiding in a green intermodal container in a *safety* (sic!) compound, to wit, a sort of asylum center for homeless people. There he meets all sorts of outcasts, potential spies (among which, most notably, a man with two right eyes!), and vicious thugs. The compound is also visited by a dubious Japanese theatrical society which organizes bizarre exhibitions, butoh workshops, and Noh operas slightly verging towards pornography. A tapir and a white peafowl, both magically out of place and apparently standing for the renewed hope of saving the planet, are soon dispensed with. Distant from his family and furiously daydreaming of AS7’s high life, perhaps his wealthier, luckier alter-ego, the protagonist grows more and more lonely and withdraws into himself up to a point where he finally decides that the outside world simply isn’t worth it and that his dreams and hallucinations are far more significant.

Patrik Sampler is a self-referential writer – to be intended in the best possible sense. Italian avant-garde writer Carlo Dossi, for one, was extremely self-referential. Some of the best writers are. Patrik Sampler’s first novel is the perfect summation of all his passions and obsessions – his concern for the environment, his love of Japan and Japanese theatre in all its forms (Kabuki, Noh, Butoh), the yearning for a free, unconstrained, instinctive language similar to the one spoken by the Emperor in the Noh Opera (remember, he’s one of the guys behind the satirical noise duo Dupobs). Other forms of such self-referentiality are the several references to painters, writers, musicians, and bands (Henri Rousseau, Mishima Yukio, Momus, DAF, The Escalators), brief extracts from other books, and, more generally speaking, a lavish catalogue of plant and animal species. Having read (and translated) Sampler’s short story ‘Kansai Airport’, The Ocean Container also seems to provide the reader with the ultimate version of certain character types and leitmotifs. While the man with the two right eyes in the novel seems to be a more effective replica of the kid 'standing out', the inconsistent ads playing on the bus seat back screen in the story anticipate the ones preceding the Prime Minister’s Address. Likewise, the proud pomposity of a male voice-over promoting Canada as a “land of opportunity” evokes a similar episode in the short story.

Sampler’s erotic-satiric treatment of a country totally devoted to capitalism and consumerism alternates political discourse taken to extremes with typically Japanese fetishes, managing to create a very distinctive mood. The book also seems to tell us something crucial about the human condition and the undeniable necessity to find one’s own deep self. The Ocean Container is a unique specimen. Growing into it may take a bit, but once the charm has had its effect, you’ll feel like reading it over and over again.

Rating: 4 stars out of 5

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Two poems by Massimo Stirneri translated into English by Maurizio Brancaleoni

 
Massimo Stirneri, 32, lives in Perugia. He writes mainly poetry and prose and also creates visual poems. 
He posts all his works both in English and Italian on his blog: http://restlessmuseum.tumblr.com/
His poems have also appeared in some American online journals.

The following two poems come from his collection “Varie”, which won the first prize in the prestigious poetry contest “Opera Prima 2017” organized by the website Poesia 2.0 (you can read the book in Italian here).

* All rights reserved. No part of the following translations may be reproduced in any form or by any means without prior authorization. Copyright infringement is a criminal offense under international law. *

like the cavity or the slit of a gutter

you wish you could go out get in uncertain blindfold on the wait

to fit out with lost objects, democratic goals

threshold deities able to bite backwards

in the intact house, under the lips other ailments rotate

from the adhering immanence denied at the finale

three times no, as everything is permitted, like hope

***

of courage every title to speak

because I am like a mother woman

more academic unfortunately. genitive

name inspired by the antidote, fear

is not natural, something induced that they create

the guard that he places, they erode the vice at the end

to protect man from cruelty to a minimum extent

for the punishment of transgression, the profound

significance of the allegations, may they unexpected he prevent

the farsightedness of return a unique dedication

hence may they have the ambit of distribution according

- ça va sans dire – to what comes right and in consecutive order, we shall conclude

not even facing extreme situations, pain be feared

on a par «they will burn them, it continues, and we will

match the gravity of the problem «keep anxiety out of Europe

it seems reality, this - I find - version I'll make myself again

vulnerabilities so deep-seated that they become the signature

of collaboration, levers resting on a low fulcrum

of course. it happens though. either-or at the root

doubly to see some of it again

causing sensation to each other resignedly:

simple contract

of adulthood

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