Poets' Corner

Nethrik. Thank you for your interest to the stamps of Russia and the Soviet Union. And a small addition: in 1987 came another stamp dedicated to Alexander Pushkin, a river cruise ship "Alexander Pushkin"

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Alexey - Thanks! In my opinion, Russia has produced many talented stamp designers and engravers. I am especially interested in stamps which commemorate your country's cultural heritage. Also, perhaps you would be kind enough to provide us with an English translation of the Alexander Pushkin quote on the attached label in my last post?

Jan Kochanowski (1530-1584) was a Polish Renaissance poet who established poetic patterns that would become integral to the Polish literary language. One of Kochanowski's best known poems is Szachy ("Chess," 1564), which describes a game of chess between two men for the right to marry a princess of Denmark, written in a style reminiscent of battle scenes in the works of Homer and Virgil. Here is an image of a stamp featuring a portrait of the poet, designed by Polish artist and engraver Marian Romuald Polak (?-1966), engraved by Stefan Lukaszewski (1918-2002), and issued by Poland on November 10, 1953 as one of a set of three stamps commemorating "Renaissance Year," Scott No. 592, plus an image of a portrait of Jan Kochanowski which was surely a model for this stamp's design.

- nethryk

A line from a poem by Pushkin was written on the stamps coupon USSR, 1987 : "...my unpurchasable voice was echo of the Russian people."

Alexey - Thanks! Sadly, I am only able to read Aleksandr Pushkin's poetry in English translation. However, I do possess a copy of Vladimir Nabokov's marvelous anthology, Verses and Versions: Three Centuries of Russian Poetry (2008), which includes superb translations of several poems written by Pushkin.

Vir Singh (1872-1957) was a poet, scholar, and theologian of the Sikh revival movement, playing an important part in the renewal of Punjabi literary tradition. Singh's contributions were so important and influential that he became canonized as Bhai, an honorific often given to those whom could be considered a saint of the Sikh faith. Here is an image of a stamp featuring a portrait of Bhai Vir Singh, printed by photogravure, and issued by India on October 16, 1972 to commemorate the poet's birth centenary, Scott No. 562, plus an image of a photograph of Bhai Vir Singh, and an English translation of his poem "The Night Air."



The Night Air

The night air,
free of the day's fever
and passion,
Blows over the sleeping foes,
That are almost friends in sleep.
The lips that moved
to hurt are motionless,
The teeth that clenched
in anger are sealed with sleep.
The tongue,
the sword like thing
that cut so sharp,
such unhealing wounds,
is sheathed.

- Bhai Vir Singh

in Russia there is a postcard dedicated to Nabokov, a famous bilingual English-Russian writer. I've read his translation of Eugene Onegin into English. The meaning of the novel transferred as accurately as possible (especially the comments), but unfortunately there isn't poetry.
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Alexey - I would agree that since poetry combines both meaning and song, it is virtually impossible to satisfactorily translate a poem from one language into another. I have read that Vladimir Nabokov lamented the fact that in his own efforts at Russian to English translations, much of the beauty and resonance of the Russian language simply could not be conveyed, so he strove mainly to interpret each poem's meaning as best he could.

Don Juan de Tassis y Peralta, 2nd Count of Villamediana (1582-1622) was a Spanish poet, a satirist, and also Head of the Imperial Postal system. Here is an image of a stamp featuring a portrait of the poet, engraved by Juan Carlos Heras Vicario (1961- ), and issued by Spain on April 26, 1991 for Stamp Day, Scott No. 2646, Edifil No. 3110, plus an image of a detail from a painted portrait of Juan de Tassis y Peralta, and his poem "A una señora que cantaba" ("To a Lady as She Was Singing"), with an attempt at an English translation. Perhaps one of SCF's bilingual native Spanish speakers could be persuaded to comment on this one?

- nethryk



A una señora que cantaba

La peregrina voz y el claro acento
por la dulce garganta despedido
con el suave efecto del oído
bien pueden suspender cualquier tormento.

Mas el nuevo accidente que yo siento
otro misterio tiene no entendido,
pues en la mayor gloria del sentido,
halla causa de pena el sentimiento.

Efectos varios, porque el mismo canto
deja en la suspensión con que enajema
cuerdo el enloquecer, la razón loca

Y por nuevo milagro o nuevo encanto,
cuando la voz más dulcemente suena,
con ecos de dolor el alma toca.

- Juan de Tassis y Peralta

To a Lady as She Was Singing

I hear that strange voice with crystal clear words
coming from that throat, so sweet,
it falls so gently on the ear
it could alleviate any torment.

But there's a new discomfort that I sense,
another mystery, unexplained,
since when the glorious feeling is at its height
it finds a reason for dark thoughts of grief.

The results are contradictory, because the same song
which enraptures and leaves you spellbound
turns madness into reason, and reason into madness.

And with a new miracle or new enchantment:
when the voice sounds its very sweetest,
it touches the soul with echoes of sadness.

Happy Birthday to Czech poet Josef Hora (1891-1945)! Here is an image of a stamp featuring a portrait of Hora, designed by Czech artist Max Švabinský (1873-1962), engraved by Jindra Schmidt, and issued by Czechoslovakia on March 27, 1961, Scott No. 1041, plus an image of a photograph of Josef Hora, and an English translation of "Shadow," a poem from Hora's collection Struny ve vetru ("Strings in the Wind", 1927). Bonus: Book (Bourlivé jaro, "Stormy Spring").

- nethryk



Shadow

A flower, when it is November.
Seems sheepish in the bloom.
A shadow was cast on the ground
As austerely as dice.

Pilgrims on the fields,
A plough, a hunter's dog, a wind,
And the light hesitates a while
As the buzz of tired flies.

Where are you going? With heart under my arm
I am trudging to the warmth of a house.
On the worn-out threshold
Weeping voices sound.

The shadow nearly
Bore us down.

- Josef Hora

Stephen Vincent Benét (1898-1943) was an American poet, short story writer, and novelist best known for his book-length narrative poem of the American Civil War, John Brown's Body (1928), for which he won a Pulitzer Prize in 1929, and for two short stories, "The Devil and Daniel Webster" (1936) and "By the Waters of Babylon" (1937). Here is an image of a stamp featuring a portrait of Benét against a Civil War era background motif, designed by American artist Carl T. Herrman, printed by lithography (Ashton-Potter), and issued by the USA on July 22, 1998 to commemorate the poet's birth centenary, Scott No. 3221, plus an image of a first day cover bearing this stamp, an image of a photo of the poet which may have been (in mirror image) a model for this stamp's design, and an excerpt from Benét's greatest poem. Note the cancellation on the cover from Harper's Ferry, West Virginia, where John Brown led his fateful raid on the United States Armory and Arsenal in 1859.

- nethryk



From John Brown's Body

John Brown's body lies a-mouldering in the grave.
Spread over it the bloodstained flag of his song,
For the sun to bleach, the wind and the birds to tear,
The snow to cover over with a pure fleece
And the New England cloud to work upon
With the grey absolution of its slow, most lilac-smelling rain,
Until there is nothing there
That ever knew a master or a slave
Or, brooding on the symbol of a wrong,
Threw down the irons in the field of peace.
John Brown is dead, he will not come again,
A stray ghost-walker with a ghostly gun.
Let the strong metal rust
In the enclosing dust
And the consuming coal
That was the furious soul
And still like iron groans,
Anointed with the earth,
Grow colder than the stones
While the white roots of grass and little weeds
Suck the last hollow wildfire from the singing bones.

- Stephen Vincent Benét

François de Malherbe (1555-1628) was a French poet, critic, and translator. Here is an image of a semi-postal (charity) stamp featuring a portrait of Malherbe, designed by French artist André Spitz (1883-1977), engraved by Charles-Paul Dufresne, and issued by France on June 11, 1955, Scott No. B295, Y&T No. 1028, plus an image of the original portrait of François de Malherbe which was surely the model for this stamp's design, and an English translation of Malherbe's poem Consolation.

- nethryk



Consolation

To M. Duperrier, Gentleman of Aix in Provence, on the Death of his Daughter.

Will then, Duperrier, thy sorrow be eternal?
And shall the sad discourse
Whispered within thy heart, by tenderness paternal,
Only augment its force?

Thy daughter's mournful fate, into the tomb descending
By death's frequented ways,
Has it become to thee a labyrinth never ending,
Where thy lost reason strays?

I know the charms that made her youth a benediction:
Nor should I be content,
As a censorious friend, to solace thine affliction
By her disparagement.

But she was of the world, which fairest things exposes
To fates the most forlorn;
A rose, she too hath lived as long as live the roses,
The space of one brief morn.

Death has his rigorous laws, unparalleled, unfeeling;
All prayers to him are vain;
Cruel, he stops his ears, and, deaf to our appealing,
He leaves us to complain.

The poor man in his hut, with only thatch for cover,
Unto these laws must bend;
The sentinel that guards the barriers of the Louvre
Cannot our kings defend.

To murmur against death, in petulant defiance,
Is never for the best;
To will what God doth will, that is the only science
That gives us any rest.

- François de Malherbe

Happy Birthday to Nikolaj Frederik Severin Grundtvig (1783-1872), an influential Danish pastor, author, poet, philosopher, historian, teacher, and politician. Here is an image of a stamp designed after a portrait of Grundtvig by Danish painter Constantin Hansen (1804-1880), layout by C. Achton Friis, engraved by Czeslaw Slania, and issued by Denmark on November 3, 1983 to commemorate the bicentenary of the poet's birth, Scott No. 747, Facit No. 816, plus an image of Hansen's original portrait, and an excerpt from one of N.F.S. Grundtvig's best known poems. "Land of the Living."

- nethryk

Happy Birthday to Jaroslav Seifert (1901-1986), a Nobel Prize-winning (1984) Czechoslovak poet, writer, and journalist. Here are images of a stamp featuring a portrait of Seifert, and a se-tenant label, designed by Slovak artist Ivan Schurmann (1935- ), combined engraved by Miloš Ondrácek (1936- ) and photogravure, and issued by Czechoslovakia on February 18, 1991, Scott No. 2822, plus an image of a photograph of the poet in 1981, and an English translation of Jaroslav Seifert's poem "To Be a Poet." Bonus: Signature on label.

- nethryk



To Be a Poet

Life taught me long ago
that music and poetry
are the most beautiful things on earth
that life can give us.
Except for love, of course.

In an old textbook
published by the Imperial Printing House
in the year of Vrchlický's death
I looked up the section on poetics
and poetic ornament.

Then I placed a rose in a tumbler,
lit a candle
and started to write my first verses.

Flare up, flame of words,
and soar,
even if my fingers get burned!

A startling metaphor is worth more
than a ring on one's finger.
But not even Puchmajer's Rhyming Dictionary
was any use to me.

In vain I snatched for ideas
and fiercely closed my eyes
in order to hear that first magic line.
But in the dark, instead of words,
I saw a woman's smile and
wind-blown hair.

That has been my destiny.
And I've been staggering towards it breathlessly
all my life.

- Jaroslav Seifert, translated from the Czech by Ewald Osers

Emilius (Emiel) Carolus Augustus Moyson (1838-1868) was a Flemish poet and champion of both the Flemish movement and the labor movement. Here is an image of a semi-postal (charity) stamp featuring a portrait of Moyson, designed and engraved by Jean De Vos, and issued by Belgium on November 22, 1975, Scott No. B927, plus an image of a photograph of Emiel Moyson which was the model for this stamp's design.

- nethryk

Happy Birthday to Swami Rama Tirtha (1873-1906), an Indian poet and a teacher of the Hindu philosophy of Vedanta. Here is an image of a stamp featuring a portrait of the poet-philosopher, printed by photogravure, and issued by India on November 11, 1966, Scott No. 438, plus an image of a photograph of Swami Rama Tirtha, and a translation of his poem "I am That."

- nethryk



I am That

I have no scruple of change, nor fear of death,
Nor was I ever born,
Nor had I parents.
I am Existence Absolute, Knowledge Absolute, Bliss Absolute,
I am That, I am That,

I cause no misery, nor am I miserable;
I have no enemy, nor am I enemy.
I am Existence Absolute, Knowledge Absolute, Bliss Absolute,
I am That, I am That,

I am without form, without limit,
Beyond space, beyond time,
I am in everything, everything is in me.
I am the bliss of the universe,
Everywhere am I.
I am Existence Absolute, Knowledge Absolute, Bliss Absolute,
I am That, I am That,

I am without body or change of the body,
I am neither senses, nor object of the senses,
I am Existence Absolute, Knowledge Absolute, Bliss Absolute,
I am That, I am That,

I am neither sin, nor virtue,
Nor temple, nor worship
Nor pilgrimage, nor books.
I am Existence Absolute, Knowledge Absolute, Bliss Absolute,
I am That, I am That.

- Swami Rama Tirtha

Happy Birthday to Czech romantic poet Karel Hynek Mácha (1810-1836). Here are images of the two similar stamps in a set depicting a statue of Mácha, designed and engraved by Czech artist and engraver Bohumil Heinz (1894-1940), and issued by Czechoslovakia on April 30, 1936 to commemorate the poet's birth centenary, Scott Nos. 213 & 214, plus an image of a detail from the monument to Mácha in Prague's Petrín Park where, each May 1st, couples gather to lay flowers and spend a few moments together, and an English translation of my favorite stanza from Karel Hynek Mácha's poem Máj ("May," 1836).

- nethryk



From "May"

The silence in the darkness grieving
Calls back to heart the days departed;
Again in waking dreams he's living
The long-lost life of a boy light-hearted.
Remembrance of green years and kind
Brings back a young man's dreams to mind;
The prisoner's eyes with tears are flowing,
And in his heart a great pain growing—
A lost world how shall the seeker find?

- Karel Hynek Mácha
Translated by Edith Pargeter

Lovely.

(Unfortunately, the stamp doesn't capture the poet's youth as does the sculpture.)