RE: COLORLESS, or how to critique yourself

[king-wenceslaus]

Ho there (ho is not a poorly spelled "hi"). I am a new Steemit user, soon to make my first post, I hope. After trawling through the poetry section here for 20 minutes, this was the first thing I saw that grabbed me at all. It is quite an interesting concept, revisiting, translating, and possibly improving on, one's older works. I tend to leave what is in the past in the past, preferring to take the experiences forward to create something new and better. It is courageous to post something you did at so early an age. Considering that English is not your first language, I think the translation came out very well.

I have a couple of burning questions though. Was this originally written in metre in Macedonian? You mentioned your university days, and I wondered if you were ever taught to write in meter. Naturally, every student learns about metre when studying the classics, but so few seem tempted to write in it that I have to ask whether it was ever taught or encouraged by such universities. If it was not written in meter, what do you think of a modern poet writing in meter, and would you consider it yourself?

Comments

[akiofthemitovski]

Hi there @king-wenceslaus! Welcome, and thanks for the compliments!

I too want to leave the past works in the past, but since I don't want to start off with my newest stuff, this seemed like a good place to start.

English is not my first language, but I have studied and spoken in for the past 22 years, so it should count for something , I guess ( a B.A. in English language and literature helps :) )

Now, to answer your questions:

• no, this was not originally written in meter, it was blank verse, so I tried to translate it as such.
• this was written before I started attending university, which was in October 2003;
• other than primary + middle school, where we occasionally had to write poems for homework or something (which were usually four-line stanzas that rhymed ABCB or ABAB), I was never taught to write in meter.
• I did dabble in iambic pentameter for a couple of years, mostly inspired by lectures at uni.
• I do love the idea of modern poetry written in meter, even in rhyme! it seems to me that blank verse has become such a cliche lately, since everyone has been (over)using it! I myself tend to use traditional poem patterns - e.g. villanelle, sonnet, etc., to explore a more modern sensibility and topics.

so, @king-wenceslaus, bring it on! I'd love to read some of your metered poems!

Have an awesome day!

[king-wenceslaus]

Thanks for the comprehensive reply! I definitely plan to post some metred poetry. I also hesitate to start off with my newest bits and pieces, partly because I hope to publish them someday. That leads me to another question. If I post something here, I suppose that I do keep my intellectual property rights to it, but at the same time, I have made it available in the public sphere, and anyone could plagiarise it and claim it as their own. Is it safe to post things that you want to publish one day on Steemit? I don't expect you to know the answer, but it would be most convenient if you did.

In my English lit BA I was also given no instruction on writing metred poetry, but most of my studies of poetry were done long before that on my own time, my parents having been very keen on the classics, so metred poetry has always seemed natural to me. Maybe I am a bit of a traditionalist elitist, but it appears superior to me, and I don't think it is quite as difficult as a lot of people think. Have a good night!

[akiofthemitovski]

I look forward to reading what you post, be it new or older.

As regarding your concerns, I haven't got anything to go on. Which is yet another reason why I chose not to post my latest.

I'm less keen on classics and Romantic poetry, and much prefer modernist and post-modernist texts.

Have a good one, @king-wenceslaus!