Intertextuality
I haven't given you haikus in weeks, so here's a handful.
Intertextuality is the technical name to refer to quotes and allusions from one work of art in another. The texts dont need to be written down: for example, Boticellis Birth of Venus is inspired by Ovid, and movies copy each other all the time. Every poet is a thief, me included, and sometimes I steal bits that I like from other writers. These are most of my poems that contain a quote straight out of someone elses work. Naturally, almost all my poems are inspired by someone else's; these are only the ones with textual quotes.
The autobiographical bit: I wrote Stirring memory and desire and Dont give in without a fight because those lines had seven syllables each, something unusual in either Spanish or English poetry. Giving up laughter came out of my fascination with Old Englishs capacity to create compounds: morning-ceald expressed effectively something that I can only say with a clumsy phrase like as cold as the morning, and it doesnt even refer to cold: in the original context it means with a desperation and sadness as bleak as the cold of the early morning. And the gorgeous understatement: giving up laughter in its original context didnt mean the end of happiness, it meant death! Less is more. Then I wrote the graffiti one because the Chapina Bridge area is one of my favourite places in Seville and I like to see the kids skating in the park thats covered in graffiti. Finally, How can we know the dancer from the dance was born after two years trying to finish a cycle about going out dancing on weekends, what is now The Friday Cycle, together with my intention of writing a poem about dancing for somebody else to see.
Beowulf.
Giving up laughter,
river-misty, morning-cold,
Monday begins.
Poniendo fin a la risa,
Como río neblinoso, mañana fría,
empieza el lunes.
Wiliam Butler Yeats.
How can we know the dancer from the dance?
Do I dance better if you watch?
¿Cómo distinguir el baile de la bailarina?
¿Bailo mejor cuando me miras?
T. S. Eliot.
Tenderness has died.
Two fierce young bodies,
Stirring memory and desire
La ternura ha muerto.
Dos cuerpos jóvenes y feroces,
Removiendo el recuerdo y el deseo
Pink Floyd.
Leaf clings to the tree,
Chill autumn.
Dont give in without a fight
Una hoja se aferra a la rama.
Otoño helado.
No te rindas sin oponer resistencia.
Graffiti anónimo en el puente de Chapina /Anonymous graffiti on Chapina Bridge.
Presos del suelo,
Me envidian si patino.
¡Mira cómo vuelo!
Prisoners of the ground
they envy me when I skate.
Watch me fly!
Intertextuality is the technical name to refer to quotes and allusions from one work of art in another. The texts dont need to be written down: for example, Boticellis Birth of Venus is inspired by Ovid, and movies copy each other all the time. Every poet is a thief, me included, and sometimes I steal bits that I like from other writers. These are most of my poems that contain a quote straight out of someone elses work. Naturally, almost all my poems are inspired by someone else's; these are only the ones with textual quotes.
The autobiographical bit: I wrote Stirring memory and desire and Dont give in without a fight because those lines had seven syllables each, something unusual in either Spanish or English poetry. Giving up laughter came out of my fascination with Old Englishs capacity to create compounds: morning-ceald expressed effectively something that I can only say with a clumsy phrase like as cold as the morning, and it doesnt even refer to cold: in the original context it means with a desperation and sadness as bleak as the cold of the early morning. And the gorgeous understatement: giving up laughter in its original context didnt mean the end of happiness, it meant death! Less is more. Then I wrote the graffiti one because the Chapina Bridge area is one of my favourite places in Seville and I like to see the kids skating in the park thats covered in graffiti. Finally, How can we know the dancer from the dance was born after two years trying to finish a cycle about going out dancing on weekends, what is now The Friday Cycle, together with my intention of writing a poem about dancing for somebody else to see.
Beowulf.
Giving up laughter,
river-misty, morning-cold,
Monday begins.
Poniendo fin a la risa,
Como río neblinoso, mañana fría,
empieza el lunes.
Wiliam Butler Yeats.
How can we know the dancer from the dance?
Do I dance better if you watch?
¿Cómo distinguir el baile de la bailarina?
¿Bailo mejor cuando me miras?
T. S. Eliot.
Tenderness has died.
Two fierce young bodies,
Stirring memory and desire
La ternura ha muerto.
Dos cuerpos jóvenes y feroces,
Removiendo el recuerdo y el deseo
Pink Floyd.
Leaf clings to the tree,
Chill autumn.
Dont give in without a fight
Una hoja se aferra a la rama.
Otoño helado.
No te rindas sin oponer resistencia.
Graffiti anónimo en el puente de Chapina /Anonymous graffiti on Chapina Bridge.
Presos del suelo,
Me envidian si patino.
¡Mira cómo vuelo!
Prisoners of the ground
they envy me when I skate.
Watch me fly!
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