Adam and Eve. A Take on Clothes.

The Expulsion from the Garden of Eden
Masaccio, 1425, fresco,
before and after the restoration

Wendy Cope's anthology 'The Funny Side. 101 Humorous poems' 

is an endless source of enjoyment. I've already translated several poems from the book into Russian. (Going to the Dogs and On Going to Meet a Zen Master in Kyushu Mountains and Not Finding Him)

Here are two versions of another favourite by D.J. Enright. I can't decide which one is better. 

XXII

'Why didn't we think of  clothes before?'

Asked Adam,

Removing Eve's.

'Why did we ever think of clothes?'

Asked Eve,

Laundering Adam's.

(version one)

XXII

"Как мы раньше не придумали одежду?" –

Спросил Адам, 

Снимая евову.

"Как мы только придумали одежду?" –

Спросила Ева, 

Стирая адамову.

(version two)

"Как же мы раньше не додумались до одежды?" –

Спросил Адам, 

Раздевая Еву.

"Как же мы только додумались до одежды?" –

Спросила Ева, 

Стирая бельё Адаму.

(Translation ©A.Anichkin, 2010)

(D. J. Enright, from Paradise Illustrated: A Sequence)

from The Funny Side. 101 Humorous Poems.Edited with an introduction by Wendy Cope,

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Russian poetic school of Noughtters Lives on in English poetry

Please read the Russian version of this post here.

ETA Hoffman

Veniamin Kaverin, one of the best loved Soviet novelists, once proclaimed that the two best Russian writers were R L Stevenson and ETA Hoffman (pictured) of the Nutcracker fame. Much later, in 1965, a wise and respectable Kaverin published his book of memoirs 'Hello, Brother, It's So Hard to Write', which included a humorous account of an evening in The Pegasus Stable, a Moscow literary cafe popular in the late 1910s - early 1920s.

He mentions a loud poetic school of the time called "ничевоки" – 'noughtters' (nothingers, nadaists). They were the Russian version of Dada. Articles about both schools (here and in Russian here) say they flourished between 1916 and 1922. Nichevoki espoused minimalism in verse. Their poems often were a chain of a few nouns in nominative, and that was that.

'Here was the poet Truvor Kanunnikov, writes Kaverin. He never wrote anything. Not because he couldn't, but as a matter of principle. He was one of the noughtters, an extreme one. He proclaimed that the supreme level of poetry was the blank white page'.

I have always thought that Kaverin's story was a joke. Surely, Dada and Nada are a thing of the literary past. Amazingly it isn't. The other day I was reading a brilliantly compiled book of humorous poems of British and American authors The Funny Side: 101 Humorous Poems (Faber poetry) (edited by Wendy Cope) and found several poems straight from the book of Noughtters.

Here is one:

The Lover Writes a One-Word-Poem

You!

(Gavin Ewart)

And this one is even better:

On Going to Meet a Zen Master in Kyushu Mountains and Not Finding Him
for A.G.

(Don Patterson)

(Note: it's just the title and the dedication, the rest is a blank page).

By the way, any better suggestions as to how to render ничевоки into English?

GOING TO THE DOGS (a study in translation of poetry)

From time to time I suddenly remember that I love poetry. 

I was inspired to translate this little poem by the parallel discussion of free verse on Languagehat and AVVA. Blog authors were asking, in a puzzled way, why is it that while most of the West writes poetry largely in free verse Russia continues (mostly) to rhyme her poems.

This poem is from 'The Funny Side. 101 Humorous Poems', compiled and with contributions by Wendy Cope. It is very obviously with rhymes. To read my translation please go to Tetradki in Russian. I've substituted the granddads in the original with my own granddads in the translation.



GOING TO THE DOGS

My granddad, viewing earth's worn cogs,
Said things were going to the dogs;
His granddad in his house of logs,
Said things were going to the dogs;
His granddad in the Flemish bogs.
Said things were going to the dogs;
His granddad in his old skin togs,
Said things were going to the dogs;
There's one thing that I have to state –
The dogs have had a good long wait.

(Anon.)



By the way, in case you think that all verse without rhyme is free verse (vers libre), it is not so, there is also blank verse, beloved of Shakespeare and Pushkin.

And an impressive list of modern Russian poets writing in vers libre is here.