Esperanto poetry in translation

In my last article I described how William Auld was launched on his very distinguished literary career when Juan Regulo Perez published a selection of his poems in Kvaropo, the first of the Esperanto books to be published under the Stafeto imprint.

In 1989, among his many and varied activities (about which I will surely have more to say in later topic articles), William Auld found time to accept the role of editor of a new book in which he proposed to publish English language translations of original Esperanto poems, together with the Esperanto version.

Bill (as he signed himself in correspondence we had during 1990) told me that he had received almost 200 translations from various parts of the world from which he finally selected 50 "to represent our poetry."

I myself submitted a few translations to Bill and he was gracious enough to select two for publication. I have decided to include them in this topic article for several reasons. First to publicly thank Bill for his kindness in selecting some of my work for publication, second to introduce readers of this topic who are very new to Esperanto to a tiny portion of its original literature in a way which will allow them to appreciate it and encourage them to press on with their language lessons. And thirdly, to counter the frequent and erroneous statement made by opponents of Esperanto to the effect that it is impossible to write poetry in an "artificial language" and consequently that there has been no original literature written in the language. (For more on this subject, see my Topic Article "Sad but True" which you will find at: http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/1146...).

So, without further preamble, here is a handful of poems which I particularly liked myself. I do hope that you enjoy them and I would welcome your comments as to whether or not you would like to see, from time to time, more samples of original Esperanto writings included in these articles.

IMRE SZABO

Sablodunoj/Sand-Dunes

Printempo pas^as c^irkau^ klostro antikva
mi sentas s^ian aromon
mi pentras s^ian rideton
en la inicialoj
oazoj inter la sablodunoj
de la eterna teksto.

Spring strides through an ancient cloister
I scent her fragrance
I paint her smile
in the initial letters
oases between the sand-dunes
of the eternal text.

La Ebria Rivero/ The Drunken River

Mi ruligis la vortojn
mi rulig^is en la vortojV ebriis la bordoj de la ebria rivero
sin svingis la gracitaliaj betuloj
ni plantis ilian blankon
por heroldi nin
nian amon, blankan kolombon
kiu povas nur flugi

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