Só qui só (2)

Further experimentation with Joan Timoneda's poem ..... The major differences in version 2 (below) are the use of contracted "I'm" in stanzas one and three; omitted "I" before "see myself"; and the last line reversal. I have ideas for a third version which would make more radical changes. Not sure yet whether to do it ...

Só qui só

Só qui só, que no só io,

Puix mudat d’amor me só.

Io crec cert que res no sia,

o, si só, só fantasia,

o algun home que somia

que ve alcançar algun do,

puix mudat d’amor me só.

Só del tot transfigurat;

só aquell que era llibertat,

i ara d’amors cativat

me veig molt fora raó,

puix mudat d’amor me só.

Sí só, puix que en lo món vixc

i a mi mateix avorrixc,

i segons que discernixc

veig la qui em dóna passió

puix d’amor mudat me só.

                                                                                          Joan Timoneda, 1556

My translation (version 1):

I am who I am

I am who I am, I am not I,

for by love changed am I.

I well believe that nothing is,

and, if I am, I’m fantasy,

or some man who dreams

he may attain some gift,

for by love I’m changed.

I am fully transfigured;

I am who was freedom,

and now by loves made captive

I see myself gone mad,

for by love am I changed.

Yet I am, for in the world I do live

And do weary even myself,

and by my discerning

do see her who fires my passion

for by love changed am I.

My translation (version 2):

I am who I am

I’m who I am, I am not I,

for by love changed am I.

I well believe that nothing is,

and, if I am, I’m fantasy,

or some man who dreams

he may attain some gift,

for by love I’m changed.

I’m fully transfigured;

I’m who was freedom,

and now by loves made captive

see myself gone mad,

for by love am I changed.

Yet I am, for in the world I do live

And do weary even myself,

and by my discerning

do see her who fires my passion

for I’m changed by love.

Só qui só

In partial celebration of Barcelona's Poetry Week, which starts today, I'm posting the following in-process translation of Joan Timoneda's "Só qui só." The original text, many will already know, is also sung by Raimon and of course available on YouTube among other places. Information on the poetry week is abundant online. Wikipedia has information about Timoneda (~1518.83) but as far as I can see only in Catalan and Spanish. The poem:

Só qui só

Só qui só, que no só io,

Puix mudat d’amor me só.

Io crec cert que res no sia,

o, si só, só fantasia,

o algun home que somia

que ve alcançar algun do,

puix mudat d’amor me só.

Só del tot transfigurat;

só aquell que era llibertat,

i ara d’amors cativat

me veig molt fora raó,

puix mudat d’amor me só.

Sí só, puix que en lo món vixc

i a mi mateix avorrixc,

i segons que discernixc

veig la qui em dóna passió

puix d’amor mudat me só.

                                                                                          Joan Timoneda, 1556

My translation (version 1):

I am who I am

I am who I am, I am not I,

for by love changed am I.

I well believe that nothing is,

and, if I am, I’m fantasy,

or some man who dreams

he may attain some gift,

for by love I’m changed.

I am fully transfigured;

I am who was freedom,

and now by loves made captive

I see myself gone mad,

for by love am I changed.

Yet I am, for in the world I do live

And do weary even myself,

and by my discerning

do see her who fires my passion

for by love changed am I.

Note on "Conferential"

As a note to what I wrote yesterday, let me add that Sebeok’s article is still available online. It should come up easily by searching on “Semiotics and the biological sciences initial conditions Thomas A Sebeok” without the quotation marks. If not, I note the link below. Sebeok’s mention of Lotman goes:

The Russian master, Yuri Lotman, has […] taken the boldly original step of doing away with the concept of a “bridge” altogether, replacing it by the semiotically sensitie manoeuvre of transcoding. A main principle of his research method was the elimination of the opposition between the exact sciences and the humanities by treating the fabrics of these complementary domains as if they were readily transmutable from one semiotic system to another (Lotman 1990:271).

Lotman 1990 etc. is the 1990 publication Universe of the Mind: A Semiotic Study of Culture.

One of the links to the Sebeok article:

 http://livingbooksaboutlife.org/pdfs/sebeok.pdf

Conferential

In her essay on Walter Sickert, Virginia Woolf tells readers that writing and painting have much to tell each other. Many people of course are already aware of this fact, but the authority of a writer like Woolf brings the truth home in new ways. But my aim in mentioning this is to call attention to the shared edification one gets from a different kind of reading, which is the conversational exchanges of scientific conferences—scientific in the wide sense, a sense Nietzsche at least would have promoted. Lotman too, and this updates, regards the humanities and the exact sciences on equal footing. The master, Thomas Sebeok calls him in an article I unfortunately seem to have mis placed. In any event talking at conferences both formally and informally spurs freedom of speech. Tout simplement. They stay in touch and in many ways promote a more global social sense. Which takes us back to that writing/painting mot.........