Poems That Make Grown Men Cry Read Free Page B

English and Spanish, published in over fifty
languages. His plays have been performed in more than one hundred countries, including
Death and the Maiden
(filmed in 1994 by Roman Polanski),
Purgatorio
, and
Speak Truth to
Power: Voices from Beyond the Dark.
A DistinguishedProfessor at Duke University, human rights activist, and contributor to major papers and journals across the world, he has received numerous
international awards for his poetry, essays, and novels. His latest work is the memoir
Feeding on Dreams: Confessions of an UnrepentantExile
, a sequel to
Heading
South, Looking North
, both of them dedicated to his wife, Angélica.
    The Spanish novelistJavier Marías (b. 1951) has published thirteen novels, three collections of short stories, and several volumes of essays. His novels include
Todas las almas / All Souls
(1988)
, Corazón tan blanco / A Heart so White
(1992),
Mañana en la batalla piensa en mí / Tomorrow in the Battle Think on Me
(1994)
, Negra espalda del tiempo
/
Dark Back of Time
(1998), and
Los enamoramientos / The Infatuations
(2013). He is also the translator of various English classics into
Spanish, notably
Tristram Shandy
. He has held academic posts in Spain, the United States, and Britain as Lecturer in Spanish Literature at Oxford University.

Hokku
    FUKUDA CHIYO-NI (1703–75)

    BORIS AKUNIN
    I think that I understood the meaning of poetry for the first time when I read this
hokku
written by Chiyo, a Japanese poetess of the eighteenth century.
    To understand poetry, to be deeply moved by its beauty and force, one needs a key. I felt immediately that there was a mystery in this formula, whichsounds so beautiful in Japanese
(‘
Tonbo-tsuri kefu wa doko made itta yara?
‘), but looks devoid of meaning. A dragonfly catcher? Is it a symbol of some kind clear only to a Japanese?
    The mystery made me dig deeper and I learned that, no, it wasn’t something esoterically Japanese.
    Chiyo wrote that poem when her little son died. On writing the
hokku
she became a nun.
    In the originalthere are only seventeen syllables. This masterpiece moves me so much that in homage to it I once wrote a long, long novel. The first volume consists of seventeen chapters and is
called
Dragonfly Catcher
. The second volume,
Between the Lines
, is four times thicker and explains the meaning of the first. All in all, it is five hundred pages, and it cannot even
remotely compare to Chiyo’s miniature.That’s what poetry is about.
    Hokku
    Dragonfly catcher,
    Where today
    have you gone?
    (c. 1740–1775)

    The Russian philologist, critic, essayist, and translator Boris Akunin (b. Grigory Shalvovich Chkhartishvili, 1956) began publishing detective stories in 1998 and has become one
of the most widely read authorsin Russia. His Erast Fandorin series of books, full of literary games and allusions, are translated into English by Andrew Bromfield. This translation of
Chiyo’s
hokku
(later known as a ‘haiku’) is his own.

Wandrers Nachtlied II
    JOHANN WOLFGANG VON GOETHE (1749–1832)

    JOHN LE CARRÉ
    I chose this poem in part because it is a gem of German lyrical poetry; and in part because the beauty of the German language has long been lost on British ears, and it’s
high time for a revival. And finally because the ‘Nachtlied’ is a moving and exquisite contemplation ofold age.
    Wandrers Nachtlied II
   
Wayfarer’s Night Song II
Über allen Gipfeln
   
Over all the hilltops
Ist Ruh,
   
is calm.
In allen Wipfeln
   
In all the treetops
Spürest du
   
you feel
Kaum einen Hauch;
   
hardly a breath of air.
Die Vögelein schweigen
   
The little birds fall silent
in Walde.
   
in the woods.
Warte nur,balde
   
Just wait . . . soon
Ruhest du auch.
   
you’ll also be at rest.
    (1776)
    TRANSLATION BY HYDE FLIPPO

    Often billed a spy turned writer, John le Carré (b. DavidCornwell, 1931) prefers to describe himself as ‘a writer who, when very young, spent
a few ineffectual