TRANSLATIONS

Guillaume Apollinaire     Zone     Mirabeau Bridge     Annie     Clotilde     White Snow     Poem Read At André Salmon’s Wedding     The Farewell     The Door     The Emigrant from Landor Road     Rhenish Scenes: Rhenish Night          May          The Synagogue          The Bells          The Lorelei          Schinderhannes          Autumn Rhenish          Fir Trees          The Women     Sickly Autumn     The Betrothal     Hunting Horns Antonin Artaud     The Tree André Breton     Broken Line     Sunflower     No Grounds     The Verb To Be     The Forest in the Axe     Knot of Mirrors     Postman Cheval     Murderous Rescue BlaiseCendrars     Journal     Contrasts     Cracklings     Homage to Guillaume Apollinaire Robert Desnos     The Bay of Hunger     Cuckoo Henri Michaux     My Business     On Death’s Road     A Peaceable Man     Plume Travels     Plume on the Ceiling     I Am Writing to You from a Far-Off Country     Clown Benjamin Péret     The Hypochondriac     The Beauties Of Heaven And Earth     Adventures Of A Toe     Reform     Simply     Falling Bodies     The Marriage of the Leaves     Heart off the Hook     Let’s Butcher It     The Sweetness of Hearth And Home     The Dead And Their Children     What Does It Matter     Box Of Lights     Had It Up To Here     No Artichokes Without Tomatoes     Brave Folk     Sleepless Nights     A Thousand Times     Washing Your Hands     New Wine     Wooden Legs     Arm In Arm Pierre Reverdy     Memory Georges Ribemont-Dessaignes     Waiting     Opium Philippe Soupault     Georgia     Garland     Say It With Music     Clasped Hands     Sporting Goods Tristan Tzara     Sage Mars Dance     Volt     Poem For Madame Sonia Delaunay's Dress     Evening     Route

For a few years in the mid 90’s I translated a lot of 20th century French poetry—mostly surrealists like Benjamin Péret & Andre Bréton, or poets somewhat associated with that movement, like Apollinaire & Henri Michaux.  The selection given here—though large—is really a fraction of the total work I cranked out during that time.  Because there’s only so much time for posting, & because it would be a major undertaking to go back through all the work & check it for “accuracy,” edit it, etc., I picked out translations that I felt confident were: 1. Good, readable english poems 2. Reasonably faithful to the original 3. Representive selection of the poets I was interested in during this translating frenzy The number of translations per poet has nothing to do with my opinion of their relative poetic merits—for instance, there are twice as many poems by Benjamin Péret as by Apollinaire.  While I love Péret’s poetry, to my mind Apollinaire is among the very best 20th century poets, in whatever language.   I translated a lot of Péret because he seemed like a good fit for me, particularly his "fractured fairy tale" sensibility.  Also, since he’s more obscure, there are fewer translations of him available—in some ways a mixed blessing, because it can be instructive to check other people’s work, especially if there are several versions to study.  On the other hand, you don’t have to worry so much about the fact that “so-&-so got this line just right, & so what will I do now?”  Finally, my choices for translation material were somewhat dictated by what poems I could get my hands on—I would have liked to translate more of Robert Desnos’ work, but at the time could only come by a few of his poems here & there.  Before the internet, & even in the Bay Area, you really had to scour the stores to find some of these guys. The translations are grouped alphabetically by poet—links are opposite. With loving thanks to my dear wife, Eberle Umbach, who encouraged me to post these along with my original poems. John Hayes

OUR OTHER PAGES FIVE & DIME JAZZ: Eberle & I compose & perform music out here in the wilds of Idaho THE BIJOU ORCHESTRETTE: We also have scored some Nell Shipman's silent films; the Bijou Orchestrette is our musical incarnation for this endeavor POEBIZ: The main page for the poems I wrote in San Francisco in the 90's CHARLOTTESVILLE POEMS: The main page for the poems I wrote in the 80's, mostly in Charlottesville, VA

You can contact me at fiveandimejazz@yahoo.com