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Previous Thread Next Thread Print Thread Page 2 of 2 1 2 Re: Thoughts about words #3639 07/12/00 09:24 AM Joined: Jun 2000 Posts: 724 Avy OP old hand OP Avy old hand Joined: Jun 2000 Posts: 724 Dear Jackie and Wsieber What comes to mind is: "A word is dead When it is said, Some say. I say it just Begins to live That day." Emily Dickinson There is something to this analogy of - the word being a thought born into this world and thought being words in gestation. Though extending the metaphor gets my "words in gestation" all tangled up. Maybe be wordless thoughts are a very nascent stage in the whole process - maybe the DNA stage or if the DNA has epidermis (I don't know if it does) may be the genetic code stage of the DNA - which have been expressed in words they say. Jackie - I'd like to think smell and picture day dreams are thoughts too. That's the stuff of surrealism. I guess stream of consciousness is keeping the words as close to their nascent - thought stage as possible - not working too much on the skin. . That's thinking aloud. Copy Link to Clipboard Share Post on Facebook Share Post on Twitter Re: Thoughts about words #3640 07/23/00 10:27 AM Joined: Jun 2000 Posts: 444 Sydney Australia B Bridget addict Bridget addict B Joined: Jun 2000 Posts: 444 Sydney Australia "Translation is entirely mysterious. Increasingly I have felt that the act of writing is itself translating, or more like translating than it is like anything else. What is the other text, the original? I have no answer. I suppose it is the source, the deep sea where ideas swim and one catches them in a nets of words and swings them shining into the boat...where in this metaphor they die and get canned and eaten in sandwiches. The bring something across, one needs a boat; or a bridge; what bridge? The metaphors all self-destruct. I am left with the stubborn feeling that composition, whether of poetry or of prose, is not all that different from translation. In translating you have a text of words to work from; in composing or creating you don't; you have a text that is not words and you find the words. That's a difference, of course, but the job, getting the right words in the right order, getting the measure right, is the same. Feels the same. ....the places where our literature is alive, unfixed, on the move, defying definition. What is this stuff? Is it spoken or written? Both. Is it narrative or ritual? Both. Is it poetry or prose? Both. that's the sort of stuff I want to be able to compose myself. I want to learn how to make translations from the languages nobody knows, nobody speaks. The translations will not be as good as the originals, but then, they never are." Ursula Le Guin. The last two lines are the best description I have come across yet of the glory and the frustration of writing. Copy Link to Clipboard Share Post on Facebook Share Post on Twitter Page 2 of 2 1 2 Moderated by  Jackie  Hop To General Topics ------  Information and announcements  Q&A about words  Wordplay and fun  Words and languages in schools  Miscellany  Weekly Themes  Looking for (writers, speakers,... (Old) Weekly themes. (have been... ------  Words from medicine  Beheading words  Meta-words  Words from classical mythology  Animal Safari  Words with unusual etymologies  Eponyms or words derived from p...  Loanwords from German  English as a global language Print Thread Switch to Threaded Mode Show Likes Link Copied to Clipboard View Profile Private Message Follow User Forum Posts Like Summary View Profile Private Message Follow User Forum Posts Like Summary Forum Statistics Forums16 Topics13,913 Posts229,318 Members9,182 Most Online3,341 Dec 9th, 2011 Newest Members Ineffable, ddrinnan, TRIALNERRA, befuddledmind, KILL_YOUR_SUV 9,182 Registered Users Who's Online Now 0 members (), 719 guests, and 2 robots. Key: Admin, Global Mod, Mod Top Posters(30 Days) wofahulicodoc 32 A C Bowden 13 LukeJavan8 1 ddrinnan 1 Top Posters wwh 13,858 Faldage 13,803 Jackie 11,613 tsuwm 10,542 wofahulicodoc 10,535 LukeJavan8 9,916 Buffalo Shrdlu 7,210 AnnaStrophic 6,511 Wordwind 6,296 of troy 5,400

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