I'd never heard of the poet Jack Gilbert until he came up for study in a writing class a few weeks ago. He was never particularly well known, published only six or seven collections in his lifetime, and died in 2012. But I was struck by the works we discussed, their earthiness and in-your-face honesty, the courage of the writer.
Then, in a mysterious coincidence, one of his poems was released this month in a moving video on a channel I follow.
Well, of course there's no mystery here, I simply wouldn't have noticed the video before the class.
The Adrian Brinkerhoff Foundation releases many wonderful videos on its channel (another example: the Doireann Ní Ghríofa poem I wrote about before) but there are very few subscribers. This venture must be making a big loss given the obvious high cost of the productions. I wonder what's behind it?
In the poem, Gilbert says that there's no word in French for 'home' and I thought he was just making that up. But now I think he's right, the exact equivalent doesn't exist. Depending on context it's translated as 'la maison', 'la patrie', or 'le pays', none of which are quite the same. Concepts like homesickness or homelessness have a different nuance in French.
ReplyDeleteLanguages are such slippery things.