Selected poems

What Hacker News says

1. lioetersApr 2022
   Speaking of out-of-copyright works, I checked Project Gutenberg and they do have books in various languages. There's probably some way to programmatically search their archive to list books that are available in multiple languages - which might be suitable for creating "interlinear translations".

   For example, a list of all their books in Spanish:

   https://www.gutenberg.org/browse/languages/es

   Or Japanese:

   https://www.gutenberg.org/browse/languages/ja

   This latter is a short list though, and they're old books with a style of writing that are not friendly for learning the language.

   I suppose manual curation is necessary to decide what kind of books are best for this purpose, starting with a smaller vocabulary of simple words.

   ---

   I remember in high school I discovered a book of poems by Pablo Neruda, with the Spanish original and English on pages side by side. It was a wonderful reading experience, and I learned quite a lot from it.

   Neruda: Selected Poems (Bilingual Edition)

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2. zenoconJan 2013
   I don't know anything about this paparazzi crusade or this _why fellow, but I do like me some absurdist poetry. Kharms is pretty good...highly recommend Russel Edson http://www.amazon.com/Tunnel-Selected-Poems-Russell-Edson/dp..., and for prose Donald Barthelme (e.g. Don B's last _fake_ tweet https://twitter.com/donb/status/273048668519690240)

   edit: posted link to best intro to R.E.

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3. cannamMay 2025
   In 1968 a British newspaper ran a competition for English translations of "Spleen - Je suis comme le roi..." The poet Nicholas Moore - motivated by a belief that translating poetry was impossible and the project futile - sent in 31 different entries, by post, under false names and with varying levels of absurdity. He didn't win.

   You can find them at https://www.ubu.com/ubu/pdf/moore_spleen.pdf, or in his published Selected Poems, along with an essay (written afterwards) about translation. Worth looking out.

   (I particularly admire the sarcastic one that begins "I'm like The Winner of The Competition / The one who wrote the strong, rewarding phrase...")

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4. MaysonLSep 2017
   A writer can have lots of poetry, personal expository essays, journals, unfinished drafts lying around OR s/he can "ship" a best-selling novel, publish a high-traffic blog or something.

   There are also writers who can do all of these: my personal favourite is Robert Graves (possibly because once many years ago I got him to autograph his Selected Poems and his memoir Goodbye to all That).

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5. gPphXJan 2016
   by author:

   Beano (comic, ’50s)

   Private Eye (satirical magazine, ’60s – ’80s)

   Raw (comic, ’80s)

   Viz (comic, early ’80s)

   Paris Review, The - Writers At Work: The Paris Review Interviews edited by Malcolm Cowley

   Ackroyd, Peter - Hawksmoor

   Alighieri, Dante - Inferno

   Amis, Martin - Money

   Baldwin, James - Fire Next Time, The

   Barnes, Julian - Flaubert’s Parrot

   Bellow, Saul - Herzog

   Braine, John - Room At The Top

   Broyard, Anatole - Kafka Was The Rage

   Bulgakov, Mikhail - Master And Margarita, The

   Bulwer-Lytton, Edward - Zanoni

   Burgess, Anthony - A Clockwork Orange

   Burgess, Anthony - Earthly Powers

   Cage, John - Silence: Lectures And Writing

   Camus, Albert - Stranger, The

   Capote, Truman - In Cold Blood

   Carter, Angela - Nights At The Circus

   Chabon, Michael - Wonder Boys

   Chatwin, Bruce - Songlines, The

   Cohn, Nik - Awopbopaloobop Alopbamboom: The Golden Age of Rock

   Cork, Richard - David Bomberg

   Crane, Hart - Bridge, The

   Danto, Arthur C. - Beyond The Brillo Box

   DeLillo, Don - White Noise

   Diaz, Junot - Brief Wondrous Life Of Oscar Wao, The

   Döblin, Alfred - Berlin Alexanderplatz

   Dos Passos, John - 42nd Parallel, The

   Edwards, Frank - Strange People

   Elliot, T.S. - Waste Land, The

   Faulkner, William - As I Lay Dying

   Figes, Orlando - A People’s Tragedy

   Fitzgerald, F. Scott - Great Gatsby, The

   Flaubert, Gustave - Madame Bovary

   Friedrich, Otto - Before The Deluge

   Gillete, Charlie - Sound Of The City: The Rise Of Rock And Roll, The

   Ginzburg, Eugenia - Journey Into The Whirlwind

   Guralnick, Peter - Sweet Soul Music: Rhythm And Blues And The Southern Dream Of Freedom

   Hall, James A. - Halls Dictionary Of Subjects And Symbols In Art

   Harding, Douglass - On Having No Head

   Hirshey, Gerri - Nowhere To Run The Story Of Soul Music

   Hitchens, Christopher - Trial Of Henry Kissinger, The

   Homer - Iliad

   Isherwood, Christopher - Mr. Norris Changes Trains

   Jacoby, Susan - Age Of American Unreason, The

   Jaynes, Julian - Origin Of Consciousness In The Breakdown Of The Bicameral Mind, The

   Kerouac, Jack - On The Road

   Kidd, David - All The Emperor’s Horses

   Koestler, Arthur - Darkness At Noon

   Laing, R. D. - Divided Self, The

   Di Lampedusa, Giusseppe - Leopard, The

   Larson, Nella - Passing

   Lautréamont, Comte de - Maldodor

   Lawrence, D.H. - Lady Chatterly’s Lover

   Lebowitz, Fran - Metropolitan Life

   Lévi, Eliphas - Transcendental Magic, Its Doctine and Ritual

   Lewis, Wyndham - Blast

   Marcus, Greil - Mystery Train

   McEwan, Ian - In Between The Sheets

   Milligan, Spike - Puckoon

   Mishima, Yukio - Sailor Who Fell From Grace With The Sea, The

   Mitford, Jessica - American Way Of Death, The

   Nabokov, Vladimir - Lolita

   Norman, Howard - Bird Artist, The

   Norris, Frank - McTeague

   O’Hara, Frank - Selected Poems

   Orwell, George - 1984

   Orwell, George - Inside The Whale And Other Essays

   Packard, Vance - Hidden Persuaders, The

   Pagels, Elaine - Gnostic Gospels, The

   Paglia, Camille - Sexual Personae: Art And Decadence From Nefertiti To Emily Dickinson

   Petry, Ann - Street, The

   di Pirajno, Alberto Denti - A Grave For A Dolphin

   Priestley, J.B. - English Journey

   Rechy, John - City Of Night

   Sadecky, Peter - Octobriana And The Russian Underground

   Saunders, Ed - Tales Of Beatnik Glory

   Savage, Jon - Teenage

   Selby, Hubert Jr. - Last Exit To Brooklyn

   Spark, Muriel - Prime Of Miss Jean Brodie, The

   Steiner, George - In Bluebeard’s Castle

   Stoppard, Tom - Coast Of Utopia, The

   Sylvester, David - Interviews With Francis Bacon

   Thomson, Rupert - Insult, The

   Thurman, Wallace - Infants Of The Spring

   Toole, John Kennedy - A Confederacy Of Dunces

   Waterhouse, Keith - Billy Liar

   Waters, Sarah - Fingersmith

   Waugh, Evelyn - Vile Bodies

   Weschler, Lawrence - Mr. Wilson’s Cabinet of Wonders

   West, Nathanael - Day Of The Locust, The

   White, Charles - Life And Times Of Little Richard, The

   Wilson, Colin - Outsider, The

   Wolf, Christa - Quest For Christa T, The

   Wright, Richard - Black Boy

   Yokoo, Tadanori - Tadanori Yokoo

   Zinn, Howard - A People’s History Of The United States

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