( via / via )

Eleven Dantes.

I too have always been baffled by this seemingly hardwired feature of our literary culture. I enjoy reading translated works in languages i can't read, like Russian. But i also have explored (to a limited degree) poems in two or three of their original languages & the difference is what i like to call "a cover song versus the original"... Literary culture requires generalizations it 𝑎𝑏𝑠𝑜𝑙𝑢𝑡𝑒𝑙𝑦 𝑐𝑎𝑛 𝑛𝑜𝑡 𝑏𝑎𝑐𝑘 𝑢𝑝, in most cases (unless the critic is someone like George Steiner). The alternative is having the humility to admit most of us aren't qualified to make the kind of sweeping critical judgments we would want to.

Caravans to Empire Algol.

boiling in the tar-pit
em'rald rain
vilipend neon lie
blinds drawn
ritual murder board
half empty

"Everyone talks about our cherry blossoms and sometimes our azaleas and magnolias, but Dos Passos is the first writer I’ve encountered to remark on the crape myrtles."