The Inner Trees: Selected Poems of Yvan Goll

by Yvan Goll, Thomas Rain Crowe (Editor)

Overview

"Goll was in the avant-garde of various literary scenes. A central figure in the German world of Dada and Expressionism in Berlin; a founder alongside Eulard and Apollinaire of the French Surrealist movement in Paris; friend and collaborator with Picasso, Leger, Dali, Braque, Chagall, Tanguy and James Joyce; playwright and precursor to Ionesco’s “Theatre of the Absurd,” and Artaud’s “Theatre of Cruelty”; the celebrated editor of Hemispheres magazine in the U.S. and friends of William Carlos Williams, James Laughlin of New Directions, and Kenneth and Miriam Patchen, among others."

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781945680250
Publisher:	White Pine Press
Publication date:	05/14/2019
Pages:	140
Product dimensions:	9.00(w) x 6.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Thomas Rain Crowe is an internationally-published and recognized author and translator of more than thirty books, including the multi-award winning nonfiction nature memoir Zoro’s Field: My Life in the Appalachian Woods (2005); an historical novel The Watcher: Like Sweet Bells Jangled (2015) and several collections of poems including Radiogenesis (2007) and The Laugharne Poems published in Wales in 1997 by Carreg Gwalch.

Read an Excerpt

JEAN SANS TERRE DEFINED BY YVAN GOLL

Landless John is the man who removes his shoes
When he touches ground, better to feel it:
Its feminine sand and its angry rock
And the essence of its different clays

Landless John is the man whom you have met
At the Marche aux Poissons
Haggling over two sous for a kilo of dawn
Carrying trout like an armful of roses

Touching the beef and the pear near the heart
And the carp in his stillness
Feeling the material of things of the earth
Estimating the material of clouds

The arch-ancient man: all plays on words
All hands he shook are dead leaves
All the girls have kept his touch on their necks
Like a gust of almond-scented wind

In the morning his head bore the reed basket of sorrel
And at evening the tiara of seven wisdoms
His curls were wilder than David’s
However his polished skull will roll on the boneyard

Landless John walks the roads leaving nowhere
He walks to escape his shadow which binds him to the soil
He wants to possess nothing on this earth. Will he
--By singing--get free of his shadow, his other I?

Translation by Galway Kinnell



 
JOHN WITH NO MOON

By the light of the moon
John who has no other
Meanders from one
City to another

Alone forever
Drunk with infinity
He wanders the world over
In exile eternally

Form linked with form
In pairs all except him
Sleep under the chloroform
Of a senseless dream

The moonlight shows
Courts and corridors
Golden windows
And platinum doors

Over the rooftiles
In the heart’s core
The star spills
The oil of extreme languor

Oh even
The prison grills
Glow with crime
Like live coals

Only John keeps walking walking
With a mist wrapped around him
And finds nothing
But a bridge to shelter him

Always while he was young
His ambition was too great:
To grow drunk with tasting
Some pure absolute

Always vague, some height
Or arcane in his head
He even forgot
To make a bed

The sky all hung with lights
Turns like a fool
The radiant planets
Reveal jewel upon jewel
But John does not pause
To watch the cosmic lake
Head down he goes
His tired feet ache

Old all of a sudden
Chewing his spite
Poor John with no moon
Founders in the night

Translation by W.S. Merwin




 
ODE TO AUTUMN

Why are the elms already
Tearing up their clothes
And throwing their arms around
In insane fear?
The golden calm of summer
Has left them.
The lions are lost
In the gray grass,
The dandelions of happiness,
The promises of lovers,
Already forgotten,
Die away in the underworld.

The great king
The knower of strange things
Lord of the woods
Gives up his fight
Against clouds,
He lets the rusty scepter
Hit the ground,
The apple of wisdom
And all the jewels
Of the crown rot.

In the rustling
Honeysuckle of the marshes
The chest of the terrified marten thumps.
The dragonfly breaks
In two above the pond
Like delicate glass.

Only the centaurs
With red beards
Run down
The hill joyfully,
Hoofs throwing sparks,
And their sparks
Glimmer in the moss.

The leaves get free
From their branches
Like swaying and wounded hands:
Underneath they build
Up a coppery tomb
For the birds that are dying.

In the ruins
Of the bird castle
The night owl still lives,
Lighting up the future
With his huge eyes.

Translation by Robert Bly



THE FEAR DANCER

The fear in your hands is light as smoke over fields
You are caught in a tower of thorns
You glide through its walls yet you never find your way to me

The fear in your hair is yellow as the glow of dying candles
The fear in your voice is inscrutable as fog
You hurl yourself against my chest and yet I cannot feel you

You are a fear dancer disguised as autumn crocus
In a circle of red warriors you are buoyed by the music of bones
Yet you never break the circle and you never glide to me

What is whispering in your head? Whom do you call your tormentor?
Never has the reddish-green of your eyes smoldered so deceitfully
As in your dealings with the weapon-glistening foe

Fear is the burning wool dress--the blue one that I bought for you
It embraces you and keeps you from coming to me
You are burning in its fabric and crying like a wailing bird



IN FIELDS OF CAMPHOR

You are at home in fields of camphor
In iodine swamps you drink yourself finally young
The brown brandy of roots
Nourishes you better than jugs of sun

A torch blazes and reels in the oil of your eyes
A fire makes music with flute and drum
Your ancestors' skeleton dances at the festival of decay

The noble yellow flower
That blooms once every thousand years
Slowly uncoils from your ribcage
 

Table of Contents

CONTENTS Preface (Thomas Rain Crowe)………………. "LOOKING FOR DRAGONSMOKE Contents I Dragonsmoke“Robert Bly has become, over his several lifetimes of ink and words, a force of geological genius, transforming the landscape of poetry and culture in ways that set him beside the Old Masters and anonymous teachers whose praises his lines so often sing. This book carries its own lantern of bioluminescence, an alchemical music and knowledge, and Bly’s ferocious thirst, needed now more than ever.” - Jane Hirshfield Six Disciplines That Intensify Poetry Looking for Dragonsmoke II The Imperfect Is Our Paradise The Work of Jane Hirshfield Wallace Stevens and Dr. Jekyll My Doubts About Whitman Upward into the Depths Rilke and the Holy James Wright’s Clarity and Extravagance A Few Notes on Antonio MachadoWilliam Stafford and the Golden Thread Some Rumors About Kabir The Surprises in Ghalib III Opinions and Judgments A Wrong Turning in American Poetry When Literary Life Was Still Piled Up in a Few Places The Eight Stages of Translation IV Thoreau and Wildness Thoreau and Wildness Introduction vi Butterfly and Flowers I. II. III. IV. Blossoms fade in withered red and apricots are tiny 1 I recall our first meeting by the peacock screen 3 Petals flutter down without wind 5 The face of spring glows after rain 7 V. Lights flooded Hangzhou on the Fifteenth Night 9 The Water Song Roll up brocade curtains at sunset 11 When did the bright moon come into being 13 Murmurs ripple between boy and girl 15 Southern Countryside Frost is on the ground and the river has shrunk 17 My gaze darkens the cup that sends off spring 19 I looked back at the jumbled ridges 21 A jade goblet captures late afternoon landscape 23 Calming the Wind and Waves Ignore the sounds piercing trees and beating leaves 25 I envy a certain man refined as carved jade 27 The Court Fills With Fragrance After thirty-three years 29 Fame fits in a snail's horn 31 “Return to where I belong” 33 Sand of the Washing Stream Crimson warmth of sunset lured fish to the surface 35 The stream bathes orchid sprouts down the mountain 37 They rouged in a whirl to go governor watching 39 Ten thousand acres of wintry waves erased my memory 41 Soft grass and flat sedge freshen after rain 43 Date blossoms rain onto my clothes 45 The wind flies fast clouds low over the water 47 From the River City Ten years one alive one dead we share no light 49 Afraid of being seen beneath my darkened eyebrows 51 Inflicted with endless pining I drift to the edge of the sky 53 I saw it all and woke from the drunken dream 55 The rain clears by the Phoenix Mountain 57 VI. An old man lets loose some youthful wildness 59 The Song of the Cave Celestial Skin of ice and bones of jade 61 Eight Toned Ganzhou Passionate wind sweeps tides in for a thousand miles 63 Divination A broken moon catches on a leafless phoenix tree 65 Touching Up Crimson Lips Red apricot blossoms flaunt sweet scent 67 Lord Ruan’s Return First cicadas drone in leafy locusts and tall willows 69 A Young Man’s Journey Last year I saw you off 71 The Joy of Returning to Court I dreamed I was in a little boat floating on Thunder Lake 73 To the Bridegroom A fledging swallow flies into the mansion 75 Trimmed Magnolia A pair of dragons rise face to face 77 The Celestial by the River We’ve rekindled the hearth three times since parting 79 Two handmaidens rode off on fine horses 81 Sobered and got drunk again at East Hill 83 The River Turns Red Rivers Yangtze and Han dash from the west 85 Southern Song Courtesans’ eyebrows mirror shades of distant mountains 87 Carrying wine dashed through mountain rain 89 Nian Nu’s Charm The vast river rushes eastward 91 Spring in Qin Garden An oil lamp’s blue flame haunts a lone lodge 93 Celestials on the Bridge of Magpies The prince on Gou Mountain 95 A Dream Song Pass the word to East Hill 97 Water Dragon Chant They are flowers yet unlike any 99 Gazing Southward of the Yangtze Spring is not yet over 101 West River Moon I pass by Pingshan Hall for the third time 103 Do not sigh over the desolate prairie 105 A small rain patters on the balcony 107 An open field shimmers with shallow waves 109 Journey Through Incense A crystal night untouched by dust 111 Arm in arm we roamed the riverside village 113 I ride a leaf of a boat 115 The Sun Pass Dusk clouds vanish as a crystal chill blooms 117 Eternal Happiness Moonlight frosts the night 119 Zhao Jun’s Regret Someone channeled Huan Yi in three flute rounds 121 Partridge Sky The forest ends the mountain gleams bamboos hide walls 123 The Fisherman 125 Chinese Names 127 " “Surrealist Manifesto (1924)” …………………... “The Panama Canal 1914”………………………. —————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— From Jean Sans Terre (1936-1939)—American Edition: 1958 (Misc. translators) “Jean Sans Terre Defined by Yvan Goll”………………………………………………. “Identity of Jean Sans Terre” (Galway Kinnell)……………………………………….. “Jean Sans Terre Weds the Moon” (Yvan Goll)………………………………………… “Jean Sans Terre on the Bridge” (Kenneth Rexroth)…………………………………… “John With No Moon” (W.S.Merwin)…………………………………………………. “Jean Sans Terre the Assassin” (Kenneth Patchen)…………………………………….. “Jean Sans Terre Purchases Manhattan” (Clark Mills)…………………………………. “Jean Sans Terre Discovers the West Pole” (William Carlos Williams)……………….. “Jean Sans Terre at the Final Port” (William Carlos Williams)………………………… From Fruit From Saturn—Hemispheres Press, 1946 “Atom Elegy” ………………………………………… From The Myth of the Pierced Rock –Le Mythe de la Roche Percee, 1947—(translations by Frank Jones, 1975) Preface…………………… ………………………… “II, III, XIV, XV” …………………………………. From Lackawanna Elegy (1947)—Sumac Press Edition, 1970 (translations by Galway Kinnell) “Lackawanna Elegy”………………………………….. “Show Boat”………………………………………….. “Bridges”……………………………………………… “Lackawanna Mannahatta’……………………………. “Wings of Water”…………………………………….. “Fish of Wandering”…………………………………. “Brooklyn Waterfront”………………………………. “Balconies Suspended Over Lackawanna”………….. “Lackawanna Elegy”………………………………….. From 10,000 Dawns (Dix Milles Aubes, 1951) – (translations by Thomas Rain Crowe), White Pine Press, 2005 —Crowe Introduction……………………………….. “Your hair sets fire”………………………………… “Of all the trees in the forest”………………………. “I want to be that birch tree………………………… “Your eyes are everywhere”………………………... “I have grown old”…………………………………. “In 100 years”……………………………………… “I wear you like a tattoo”………………………….. “This is the season of jealousy”……………………. “O I want to complain”……………………………... “We will always be alone”…………………………. “You are elusive”…………………………………… “10,000 Dawns”…………………………………… From Dreamweed (Traumkraut) - Limes Verlag, 1951- Black Lawrence Press, 2012 (translations by Nan Watkins) “Alasam” …………………………………………… “This Holy Body” …………………………………. “Rosedom” …………………………………………. “Job III” ……………………………………………. “South” …………………………………………….. “In Fields of Camphor” …………………………….. “The Sun Cantata” ………………………………….. “To Claire-Liliane”…………………………………... “To Claire”…………………………………………... “The Fear Dancer” ………………………………….. “The Rain Palace” …………………………………… From Yvan Goll: Poems—Kayak Books, Inc, 1968 (Misc. translators) “Ode to Autumn” (Robert Bly)……………………………………. “The Inner Trees” (Robert Bly)……………………………………. “The Hut of Cinders” (George Hitchcock)………………………… “I Loved You in Every Blackbird” (George Hitchcock)………….. “Do Not Call Death” (Paul Zweig)………………………………… “Why Should Summer Come Back” (Paul Zweig)……………….. “Blood Rose” (Paul Zweig)……………………………………….. “The Night Is Our Dress” (Paul Zweig)…………………………… “Elegy for Poor Me” (George Hitchcock)…………………………. About the Editor……………………………………………………88

Preface

PREFACE

Yvan Goll was born in 1891 in Alsace-Lorraine. A central figure in the German world of Dada and Expressionism alongside Hans Arp in the early twentieth century, Goll subsequently joined forces with Breton, Apollinaire and Eulard as a founder of the French Surrealist movement. Yvan Goll’s manifesto on surrealism predated that of Breton. He later founded his own press, Rhein Verlag, and published books of poetry illustrated by such artists as Picasso, Leger, Dali, Braque, Chagall and Tanguy. An early friend of James Joyce, Goll published Ulysses in German for the first time. As well as being a pre-eminent poet and translator, Goll was a playwright of enormous influence. His plays, such as “Methusalem” (1922), were the foundation upon which Ionesco built his “Theatre of the Absurd,” and the launch pad for Artaud’s “Theatre of Cruelty.” Goll is generally considered to be the connecting link between Jarry and Ionesco. He is best known as a poet for his collections Traumkraut (Dreamweed) and Le Chanson de Jean Sans Terre (Landless John), published in New York in 1958 in translations by numerous American poets, including W.S. Merwin, Kenneth Rexroth, William Carlos Williams, Kenneth Patchen and Galway Kinnell. His Manifesto of Realism, in which he called for “a poetry of mystical realism,” appeared in 1948.
Author of some fifty books of poetry, plays, fiction and essays, Goll emigrated to the United States in 1939 at the time of the Nazi invasion of France during World War II, living at the center of the city’s artistic life along with fellow émigrés Marc and Bella Chagall. In New York he became the celebrated editor of Hemispheres magazine through which he published the work of French and American poets--including Kenneth Rexroth, André Breton and Philip Lamantia--and several volumes of both his and Claire’s poetry in English and French. During these years he befriended William Carlos Williams, James Laughlin of New Directions, and Kenneth and Miriam Patchen, among others, and spent several summers at the MacDowell Colony. After the war, Yvan contracted leukemia and he and Claire returned to France. During his last weeks in a Paris hospital, where he wrote the bulk of his opus Truamkraut, Goll quite literally survived on blood donated by fellow poets and artists. Upon finishing the text for the book that would ultimately secure his reputation as a poet in both Germany and France, Goll died in 1950, as the entry in Who’s Who in Twentieth Century Literature says, “with a French heart, a German spirit, a Jewish blood and an American passport.”
Recognized in Europe as one of the greatest bi-lingual writers of the twentieth century, Goll is relatively unknown in the United States. The principal reason for his lack of fame in this country is that very little of his work has been translated into English, and those translations have been in small-run limited editions. Among these are Selected Poems published by kayak magazine and distributed by City Lights Books in 1968; Lackawanna Elegy, translated by Galway Kinnell and published by Sumac Press in 1970; and Selected Poems published by Mundus Artium Press in 1981.
In his Introduction to kayak’s Selected Poems Paul Zweig wrote: “Unlike the Surrealists, Goll loved a real woman, who was an unchanging presence in his life. He and his wife Claire formed a turbulent love-world of which he wrote continuously. And it may be that Goll will be remembered finally for these poems.” It is, perhaps, the effusion, if not the prophetic suggestion of this endorsement, enjoined with the “simple visionary grace” of the poems themselves and Yvan Goll’s importance to twentieth century literature, that have been the driving force behind the translation of my half of 10,000 Dawns into English for the first time.
-Thomas Rain Crowe