18 Comments
User's avatar
Patris's avatar

Because almost all who participated in the experiment of democracy descended from all who took ships, but also because it is beautiful..

Expand full comment
Chen Rafaeli's avatar

❤️

Expand full comment
Portia's avatar

You did yourself proud, Chen.

Expand full comment
Chen Rafaeli's avatar

makes me happy you think that, Portia 💕

Expand full comment
Chen Rafaeli's avatar

..thank you so much for the restack, Paul 🤍

Expand full comment
Chen Rafaeli's avatar

...I'm not pleased and I think I know the reasons why. The original is very soft and musical, endings are more open, like in the first stanza for example. Mine is very close to original, so it would seem, in almost everything-yet this softness is lost at times. It's too important to be lost.

That's the main what's wrong with it, there is small stuff too.

Oh well. As I said-it's a first take, I'll have to rewrite it.

Darn, it made me so happy at first that I tried...

Expand full comment
Portia's avatar

And you should hold on to that feeling of elation, Chen. Poetry translation is the most difficult form of translation. You can always try again.

Expand full comment
Chen Rafaeli's avatar

oh and I will. I'll try to try

Thank you dear Portia

Expand full comment
Cynthia's avatar

Beautiful!

Expand full comment
Chen Rafaeli's avatar

Thank you 💫

Expand full comment
Larisa Rimerman's avatar

Zhenia, it is a beautiful translation. Sorry, I found it so late. I am shocked, you maintain Blok's intonation: if to pronounce poem slowly and aloud, we can hear some musicality despite the foreign vocabulary. My sincere congratulations! When I finish my essay on Blok, I would love, as I told you before to publish several his poems in translation, for my readers, (and we have different readers), may I use yours, as we talked before? Thank you!

Expand full comment
Chen Rafaeli's avatar

Larisa! I missed you.

Actually it's a small miracle you found it at all, as I discovered that for the past 2 (minimum) weeks 20% or more of subscribers don't get the newsletter. I don't know what to do. But that's unrelated, -I'm so happy you like it! Of course you can use it. It'd be an honor.

Only I commented later in this thread that I think it needs to be rewritten .

Because I, as per my habit, liked it in the morning, and by the evening was already sad. Муки творчества.

By the way might be telepathy but I tried to work on it again today. IA few hours ago.

Nothing good came out of it yet.

I don't like first stanza especially. The words are too "closed"...needs to be more open, more soft and musical..

But after I rewrote it it became worse. Keeping it for now as is, will continue to think

Thank you 🤍

Expand full comment
Larisa Rimerman's avatar

I love your Муки творчества. У меня Муки техники. Substack sent a note of congratulation with 100 subscribers, and I cannot find the Notes, where I could put my thank you note to them. 10 days passed. This is how I am in the technical things of Substack. I couldn't find you because I told you before, the don't send me your post through my email, as before. Let's chat tomorrow. Congratulations with Blok!

Expand full comment
Chen Rafaeli's avatar

🌹

Expand full comment
Larisa Rimerman's avatar

Thank you. I, really, don't get your writing anymore, or you stopped publishing your poems. I don't know what to think.

Expand full comment
Chen Rafaeli's avatar

Oh it's a Substack problem, more than 20% of my readers DON'T get anything in their mailboxes. I'm still waiting to hear from technical support.

I've no idea what to do, actually. I dd share several last ones on Notes, today, which I usually don't do with my own posts.

Dear Larisa, if you want, I can also forward my emails directly to you, than you'll be able to see them in your mail. Tell me if it works better, and not an imposition, -and then I'll try to do that. Until they solve the problem.

Expand full comment
Larisa Rimerman's avatar

If it's not really difficult for you, please do it, because I would love to read what you write. Or m.b. I should google you, as I did to read your prose.

Expand full comment