All about Walt Whitman

3.8 Some examples of re-creation: Fitzgerald, Joyce, Dickinson (Part 2)

Now we will quote two poems by James Joyce[1], one from Chamber Music and one called “Ecce Puer”. Actually, Joyce is not famous for his poems, considered by some as minor work, or just a joke[2]. James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (1882-1941) was an Irish writer, definitely one of the most influential writers of the 20^th century. His best known works are his novels Ulysses (1922), Finnegans Wake (1939), and A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1916). He is also the author of a short story collection, Dubliners (1914), some poems: “Ecce Puer”, “Gas from a Burner”, and “The Holy Office”, and two books of poems: Chamber Music (a collection of 36 poems) and Pomes Penyeach (thirteen poems[3]). Though neglected as second class literature when compared to his major works, we enjoy his poems and have almost finalized the translation of Chamber Music, from which we quote poem XVIII as homage to this great writer. We do think of them as small pearls, very well polished, and of soft lyricism. We tried to render them in our language as beautifully as possible, to maintain the tone and the concision of expression, and also the rhymes. In Portuguese, all verses have five metrical syllables (in English, they alternate between five and four), except for the last one, which has only three, like the original. Another aspect of the poem is the division of themes: the first two stanzas is the lover’s complaint about false friends; the other two describe his finding consolation at his Sweetheart’s bosom:

XVIII

O Sweetheart, hear you

Your lover’s tale;

A man shall have sorrow

When friends him fail.

.

For he shall know then

Friends be untrue

And a little ashes

Their words come to.

.

But one unto him

Will softly move

And softly woo him

In ways of love.

.

His hand is under

Her smooth round breast;

So he who has sorrow

Shall have rest.

.

OUR RE-CREATION:

XVIII

Ah Querida, escuta,

Teu amante fala;

Terá mágoa um homem

Se amigos falham.

.

Saberá que eles

Desleais serão

Virar poucas cinzas

Suas palavras vão.

.

Mas uma para ele

Suave se move

Suave e cortês

Com amor comove.

.

Sob teu redondo

Seio sua mão jaz;

E ele que tem mágoa

Terá paz.

.

In the article mentioned previously, “But What Of The Poems?,” by Gabriel Rosenkoetter, he says of “Ecce Puer”: “The poem, written upon the birth of his grandson and shortly after the death of his father, explains how the poet is torn between happiness at the birth and sorrow at the loss.” Indeed, the author makes a reference to the Gospel according to St. John, 19:5, which says “And Pilate saith unto them, Behold the man!”, which in Latin reads “Ecce Homo”. And to John, 19:26-27, when Jesus, already on the cross, looking where his mother was, he “saw his mother, and the disciple standing by, whom he loved, he saith unto his mother, Woman, behold thy son! [Mulier, ecce filius tuus] / Then saith he to the disciple, Behold thy mother! And from that hour that disciple took her unto his own home.” Likewise, Joyce says of his son: “Ecce Puer”, which means “Behold the boy”. Our purpose was to preserve the small structure of the verses, the rhymes and the economy of language, being as concise as the original in the balance of “joy and grief”.

“Ecce Puer”

Of the dark past

A child is born;

With joy and grief

My heart is torn.

.

Calm in his cradle

The living lies.

May love and mercy

Unclose his eyes!

.

Young life is breathed

On the glass;

The world that was not

Comes to pass.

.

A child is sleeping:

An old man gone.

O, father forsaken,

Forgive your son!

.

OUR RE-CREATION:

“Eccer Puer” (“Eis o Menino”)

Do baço passado

Um menino nasce;

Alegria e mágoa,

Meu peito desfaz-se.

.

Sereno em seu berço

Ressona o vivente.

Que Amor e Clemência

Seus olhos des-fechem!

.

A infância respira

Na vidraça;

Mundo que não era

Vem e passa.

.

Um menino dorme:

Um velho se foi.

Ah, pai sem amparo,

Seu filho perdoe!

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[1] Nowadays, James Joyce’s Works are all available on the Internet. The website we have used as source is: <http://joycean.org/> Accessed on May 30, 2007.

[2] For more information, please, see article “But What Of The Poems?”, by Gabriel Rosenkoetter, at the website essays page: <http://joycean.org>.

[3] Pomes Penyeach was written from 1904 to 1924 and sold for the price of one shilling (12 old pence) or twelve francs. The title is a play on “poems” and “pommes” (the French word for apples). It was a custom in Ireland and England to offer thirteen items as a dozen, like the English “Baker’s dozen” (thirteen loaves of bread instead of twelve). The first poem of Pomes Penyeach,“Tilly” is the bonus poem.  Curiously, in 1856, the year after the publication of the first Leaves, “Whitman and his mother told everyone […] that he had no occupation except “making pomes,” and so far as known, this was literally true” (ALLEN, 1955, p.207).

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