Silence in Your Words VII
Clearly, as before, you have nothing
to add to the conversation.
And yet your presence, even
in your continued absence,
cannot be ignored. Will we ever know
your intent? A simple acknowledgment
is all we ask. Surely, you have the time.
The prompt for Day 21 of National/Global Poetry Writing Month at napowrimo.net is to find a poem in a language you do not know and perform a “homophonic” translation of it – translate it simply by how it sounds.
I’ve used the resource suggested by the prompt, Poetry International Archives, to find a poem linked as Estonian, titled “ZOEKTOCHT NAAR DE EEUWIGHEID VII,” by Jürgen Rooste. Google Translate says the title is Danish, as the author’s name might indicate, and offers this translation: “SEARCH FOR ETERNITY VII.” The page for each country links to suggested poems with snapshots of those poems, including a portion of the poem’s body. The link for the poem by Rooste shows a blank space (screenshot, above), which I have interpreted as silence. Consider this an exercise in poetic license.
rivrvlogr 
The title is Dutch! You have me properly confused now 🙂
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I like what you created from it! I’ll now try to figure out what’s going on with the info about the poem.
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This is said to be a translation (into Dutch): https://www.poetryinternational.org/pi/poem/23915/auto/0/0/Jurgen-Rooste/ZOEKTOCHT-NAAR-DE-EEUWIGHEID-VII/nl/tile It’s an interesting poem, thanks for helping me discover it!
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Well, that makes for an interesting English translation!
The link I followed said Estonia, so maybe that mix up is why there was no actual poem there.
I still like the idea of silence as a poem for the search for eternity (if, in fact, that’s the English translation of the title). 😉
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Indeed, and searching in this case is like a quest. The word zoektocht indicates it’s not easy to find. Search journey…
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And thank you for finding that for me. 🙂
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Gosh, I’m not doing NaPowrimo this year but that is such an interesting prompt. I might have to give it a go!
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There have been some interesting responses. I decided to take a novel approach.
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You are always good at translations. I have no idea what the poem was, but you did a good job with it.
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Thanks, Merril. Angela van Son found the poem for me. My link went to a blank page because the poem is Dutch, not Estonian. I still like the idea of an empty page being the response to the search for eternity. (Or should that be an endless page?)
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Sometimes silence is the only response.
I like what you did. (K)
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I’ve had a hard time identifying with her prompts this year.
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I have as well. Perhaps they anticipated a different time. I am not in synch with them this year.
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An interesting prompt. Yours turned out to be a bit of an adventure, but I like the results.
Pat
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🙂 Thank you.
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