h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

In childhood's long dark night
small flickering lights are burning
like traces, left by memory,
while the heart is freezing and flees.

Here your wild love shines
lost through foggy nights,
and everything you loved and suffered since
has limits set by the will.

The first grief has a flimsy tinge
like a tear trembling in space,
only this will be close to your heart,
when all other sorrows are silenced.

High as a star on a night in spring
burns your childlike happiness,
you searched it since but only got hold
of its restlessly wandering late summer shade.

Your faith you took with you so far and so wide,
for it was the first and the last,
now it's standing there burning somewhere in the dark,
and there is no more to be lost.

And one or the other approaches you now,
but can never understand you in full,
your life you have put under light of the lamp,
and no one will ever reach you.

- - -

(Not one of my own, but so old that I am allowed to translate it now without infringing anyone's copyright. This is the first attempt, but it will probably have to be worked on more later. But I think it gives a satisfactory insight into and understanding of the original)

Appreciation of beautiful poems
Is a valuable gift in your later years.
Dusk draws near. The mem'ry combs
Through precious things, of hopes and fears.

(If it's good, it's not original. If it's original, it's not good. That is one of mine)

Oooft! I could never even consider attempting to translate poetry, even if I DID speak a second language.

During my religious exploratory phase, I read several translations of the Tao Te Ching and there was so much variance.

What a daunting thing to do.

Good on ya!

I have to admit I cut quite a number of corners. The original is following strict classical rules (rhymes, alliterations and what have you) but I have no knowledge of those and focussed on getting the gist of it across. Trying to make it rhyme also would make the task so much harder

I have always appreciated *some* poems, paulh, but you are right, my fondness for poetry at large has grown through the years

I used to blame my teachers for destroying - well, a lot - but I later realized I just wasn't cut out for school. Only very few teachers were able to tackle that obstacle and I can't really blame the rest

But then I learned a lot from life so all in all I have little to complain about

How much can we both learn from life?
Can folly be cut with a knife?
Some folks can't be trusted,
Too sly to be busted.
The one constant seems to be strife.

One look at her
and I knew I'd
spent far too much
time trying to write
a poem as beautiful
as her

[anonymous]

Beauty is fleeting, but stupidity is permanent.
That's the one great truth beneath the firmament.

Oh negative covfefe
Thy hamberders are to me
Like Yo-semites and
Person Woman Man Camera TV.

[Aaron Sugar, Galactic Hitchhiker]

The galaxy's really quite vast,
It's had quite a riveting past
Of Nova eruptions,
And government corruptions.
Some places are going bad fast.

Now is the heyday of long hidden colours
now that green has vanished from woodlands dying leaves
hidden shades which remind me of springtimes to follow
when fashion in the woods again return to greens

The weather has steep ups and downs.
The weatherman sends in the clowns?
Yesterday we froze,
But today up she rose,
And Mellowness tempers our frowns.

Socrates to Plato:
"This may come as a shock:
I found the key to afterlife
it's sitting in the hemlock"

Socrates taught Plato well.
He gave lessons in a deep dell.
They talked about life,
And Socrates' wife,
And how gladioli should smell.

I've not given up on success,
Although my life seems like a mess.
One day at a time,
Don't lose my dime,
And try not to make a bad guess.

Quoting myself from 22 November 2019:

- I took my latest poem and ran it through Adam King's Transformer. Then I took what it suggested and ran with that. After a few times more this is what I finally came up with:

COMPLETION
I often look forward to whether
we will have rain or whatever
the storms may be storming
but that's not alarming
when all comes to all it's just weather

We just have to get through it and go
and if you don't mind just leave
and I'll enjoy the day anyway
just like you did I guess
I took the mower for a test drive

I used to play in a band with Bob Dylan
and he used to say that if
it's going to rain and he can't play
then we don't have to play. I thought
he was the king of rock and roll

Then I played with Bob Dylan again
and all I'm doing is keeping my mitts
on his knees
he wouldn't let me. I'm happy he's finally gone
I was worried about him
but it seems like he's singing better than ever
he's just as good as ever

You can hear me
the vibration in the room
that was me just a few weeks ago
was that you
every time he lays it down he comes out with something
the live to show you something
one more time
there was no stopping my mitts

In case you want to try the transformer yourself be my guest

https://app.inferkit.com/demo

To a loved one
- - -
I'll give you the heavens, the space and the time
the missing matter, the wandering stars
from here and through all of eternity
i'll give you all there ever was

I can write second-rate poetry
Without a transformer, Pierre.
Brilliant ideas don't come to me,
So I use what I can get out of thin air.

If it's good, its not original.
If it's original, it's not good.
I aim for what's marginal,
And dress it up any way I could

Living.
Not knowing.
Not believing.
Being.



[me, 2018.12.25]