Inaugral non-fic archival post

[sloth]

Given it is the month for poems, I figured I would start off with one of those; in this case, Rolf Jacobsen's Some People, translated by Robert Bly.


Some people
ascend out of our life, some people
enter our life,
uninvited and sit down,
some people
calmly walk by, some people 
give you a rose, 
or buy you a new car, 
some people
stand so close to you, some people
you've entirely forgotten,
some people, some people
are actually you,
some people 
you've never seen at all, some people
eat asparagus, some people
are chlidren, 
some people climb on the roof, 
sit down at table
lie around in hammocks, take walks with their red umbrella,
some people look at you,
some people have never noticed you at all, some people
want to take your hand, some people
die during the night, 
some people are other people, some people are you, some people
don't exist
some people do.


In other news, new Chuck tonight! \o/ 

I've got to say, show does a really good shop of taking ideas that make me cringe at in theory, grin at in practice. 

Comments

[arboretum]

I like!

just as an aside, ahaha, I'm curious, do I know you from previously? do I have you friended / just missed your post about a new username on dw? or have I never met you before! :D

[sloth]

*sheepish* You have never met me before! I'm an admirer of your hikago fic, but I tend to traditionally be a lurker. Since Dreamwidth has the option to subscribe to build reading lists, I've been subscribing like crazy. I'm over on eljay as slob child. If you feel uncomfortable having granted me access to your Dreamwidth, I'm totally impossible to offend when it comes to friending/defriending/subscribing/unsubscribing/grantingaccess/denying access, etc.

Also, hi, I'm Petra!

[arboretum]

♥

oh, no, not at all, am happy to meet new people, etc etc., I was only worried that you were someone I knew and I had somehow assholeishly missed your new!dreamwidth!username! post or something XDDD

petra is lovely name, btw!

I am val, or sometimes eddy, the spelling varies depending on who you talk to, and I really don't have a preference either way XDD

[sloth]

XD

Thanks for not being freaked out by my admittedly stalkerish tendencies ^_^

I haven't always been fond of the name Petra, but it's grown on me as I've grown into it. I like that you have two names you answer to. I tend to fracture myself in terms of what name I go by in what context; 'Petra' is my fannish/academic name, while my middle name is the one everyone from childhood calls me, and my family (both immediate and extended) have another name for me entirely.

/ramble

[alchemise]

That's a lovely poem. It kept making me smile as I was reading it. :)

[sloth]

Hee, it is from this lovely book. I don't always like everything Bly writes, but I do tend to love everything he translates.

Some People strikes me as a very human poem. It has this non-judgmental yet highly observational quality to it; like fandom at its best. It makes me smile, too.

[phnelt]

That's an interesting poem. I really like the central conceit about people, but then, I totally go for the observations about day to day life arranged in ways that bring out new things. This mostly just reaffirms my commitment to the phrase 'people are people wherever you go'. Also, so people *do* enter your life uninvited and sit down. oh, people.

[sloth]

What I really like about this poem is how it works to create layers of observation and solidarity/alienation, but never violently - starting with "Some people/ascend out of our life" to "some people/give you a rose" (emphases mine); it's a really neat, structural way of showing how the 'some people' both includes and excludes you/me/us - and that's okay, that's wonderful, that's part of the experience of being human in this world - both on the outside seeing, and on the inside being.

I'm really glad you enjoyed this! (And I've also experienced the "uninvited and sit down", which has sometimes really worked out and more often really not.)

[phnelt]

Hm, yeah. That is especially interesting because the whole poem is a generalization in its way. 'Some people' and then talking about 'you' and I know English is especially bad for this and I think this is translated? But in English with its singular/plural you really makes that whole statement much broader. I read that line as some people [individuals]/give [individuals] a rose.

It's very broad and personal at the same time. I like that.

[sloth]

Oh, I totally agree with I read that line as some people [individuals]/give [individuals] a rose.

The point I was trying to make, I think, is that the poem's narrative voice shifts from inclusive 'our' to exclusive 'you' - it's a shift that works to create a interplay of who is speaking and who is being spoken to (an implied first person perspective in the use of 'our', an explicit second person perspective in the use of 'you', and finally the third person perspective presence in the 'some people' - actually, given that the poem begins with 'some people', arguably the third person perspective [the most outside of all] is the first frame of the poem, with the first person and second person perspectives being layered in after).

Of course this is just a whole lot of literary analysis for a poem that is probably much more simple than I am making it out to be. Haha, my English major-ness is showing.

[phnelt]

If you can't overanalyze what's the point of life? hee.