Anne Duden in Mantis

Mantis 6 contains two of my translations of Anne Duden, "Otherland" and "Responsorium."

I have not had time to read the rest of the issue yet, but it looks promising, with many translations, including two I really look forward to reading:

1. Mark Terrill's translation of part of a long poem by Rolf Dieter Brinkmann, along with an essay on Brinkmann's work by Martin Kagel.

2. Four poems by Ko Un, whose Ten Thousand Lives I am currently reading, and which I will blog enthusiastically about soon.

Here's one of the Duden poems:

RESPONSORIUM

I

Christ's foreskin
from the relic jar, crystal egg, or glass bowels
in words
almost lost
balanced past the park
the one full of poultry and leftovers
by Vondel
GEVOGELTE & WILD
like dog shit
and violets
and the blue suns
of anemones
already weak-sphinctered from the first warmth
and the moon's silver rocker
on the diamond plumb
frozen.

II

Or vice versa
Christ's forerank
in the garden
— Good Lord on Good Friday —
and those goblet gutturals and redthroats
and stabs
up to under the ribbed vault
heart and brain
where the one long rests, recovered
cradling and being cradled
in the mother hollow
in the double womb of bin and boat
ON SWAYING SKIFF
high above the lit-up tiles
bridges, carpets
laid silently by the shine
slanting through the windows
onto stone slabs of the lower and other dead
over and over.

III

All around
pushed, piled and massed
at small intervals
rut detectors, runners and outrunners
curly lambs
cull sheep
and the moisture mosaic
pools, puddles and channels
of vomit
master and mastiff urine
and under the bushes
for free
the ground completely slippery
with blind insemination
beside the head yoke
the joggers' sudarium.

IV

Resurrection unseals no lips.
But beauty lies here
in the bed of clouds.
On the Ij, on the Ijssel
on the ice ocean
in the horizon bird's eye
not to be caught
in the wind clock's iris
storm hub at the station
in the feather beat's breeze
in the heron's flight
from water to water
sky to sky
and fish to fish.