The Imaginary Poets

by Alan Michael Parker

The Imaginary Poets presents exceptional work from major poets who delight in assuming a new persona. But the book's ultimate goal is to explore the nature of what is it to make a poem? to make up a poet? To ""translate"" a workis that rewriting or writing? What about translating a work that never existed? What does it mean if you create the creator? In the tradition of Pessoa and Borges, The Imaginary Poets delves delightedly into the very act of invention with a wink, a smile and tremendous respect for the art. Translate a poem into English, offer a biography of the poet, and then write a short essay in which the poem, the poet, and the corpus are consideredand make all of it up, without once indicating you have done so. Thus charged were the twenty-two contributors to this volume, who in response produced poems ""translated"" from eighteen languages including Dirja, Vietnamese, Yiddish, and even from Egyptian hieroglyphs, poems that may be read in the grand literary tradition of heteronyms and alter egos... Alan Michael Parker Contributors include Aliki Barnstone, Josh Bell, Laure-Anne Bosselaar, Martha Collins, Annie Finch, Judith Hall, Barbara Hamby, Jennifer Michael Hecht, Garrett Hongo, Andrew Hudgins, David Kirby, Maxine Kumin, Khaled Mattawa, D.A. Powell, Kevin Prufer, Anna Rabinowitz, Victoria Redel, David St. John, Mark Strand, Thom Ward, Rosanna Warren, and Eleanor Wilner

Genres: Poetry

160 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2005

About the author

Alan Michael Parker is the author of eight books of poems, four novels, and editor of five reference works on poetry. His poetry, essays, and reviews have appeared widely in journals. Parker teaches at Davidson College, where he is Douglas C. Houchens Professor of English, and in the University of Tampa low-residency M.F.A. program. His awards include three Pushcart Prizes, the 2013 and 2014 Randall Jarrell Award, the North Carolina Book Award, and the Lucille Medwick Memorial Poetry Award from the Poetry Society of America.

Reviews

[Kathryn Douglas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such an interesting concept!! I read this book for a class where we have to come up with our own imaginary poet and write poems in their style that we “translated”. It was hard to find this book, a required text for the course, but it was so worth it. I loved how different this collection was from other poetry books I’ve read.

[Allyson · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was assigned in my translation class. Our midterm option is to create a "master poet" as these poets have done in the book. It's a novel idea. I enjoyed some selections more than others, in particular Victoria Redel as Tzadie Rackel, Mark Strand as Marin K, and Barbara Hamby as Gertrude of Brandenburg. I have some great ideas now for my own translation masquerading now, and am eager to see what happens.

[Jimmy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Definitely an A for the idea here: Create an imaginary poet, Write a poem by him or her, Write a biography, and finally Write an essay about the poem and poet. Most of the poems are "translated." The result was spotty at best for me. Somehow knowing it wasn't a real person detracted from the effort. Many examples seemed like a creative writing assignment.

There was quite a range of "poets." For example, Judith Hall created JII, one of the writers of Genesis. Some of you may know that one of the real authors of Genesis is called J. In another example, Anna Rabinowitz created the ancient Egyptian poet Hekenus who wrote in hieroglyphics.

My favorite was Annie Finch's creation of Rose Elbow Souris (1864-1969). Souris was a Bulgarian influenced by Turkish ghazal singers. Later she became involved with Dada poets. She would have three abortions before a mental breakdown. Sounds drastic, but eventually you see that the creator is going to punk you with ridiculous comments. Souris became interested in sounds. She has a poem in French translated into English. It's all sounds and phrases. But when you look closer the French and English are just not matching up. For example, "Wokowanawonda" translates into "Basowindefun." It took a while for me to get some of the jokes. Once I did, I was impressed by the droll humor.

In another poem supposedly written in a lost language, the author apologizes if her translations don't match up. But no one knows the language.

[Michael Brockley · Rating 5 out of 5]

In THE IMAGINARY POETS, Alan Michael Parker collects 22 of poetry's premiere artists to present "translated" poems that transcend time and continents. World War II and jazz make multiple appearances but the volume takes the reader to an early feminist poet from ancient Egypt, a French woman who disappeared following her passion to Uzbekistan and a poet preserving Yiddish through wordplay. David Kirby blesses the volume with his playfulness while Garrett Hongo places Hawaiian field cane worker songs on center stage. But if these poets were ever assembled at at imaginary reading, the fly on the sell should be charged admission.

P. S. The late Mark Strand's contribution integrates all of the conceits of this volume in relating the story of the poem and the poet who was killed by German fire while fighting for the Russians. The billet passed through a skim journal of the soldier's poems, leaving a zero for the prospective translator to integrate into his/her translation.