De Kanadeeske Alyda Faber hat gedichten skreaun nei

oanlieding fan Fryske sprekwurden. Klik hjir foar de pdf.

De auteur jout der dizze ynformaasje by:

The epigraphs of the poems are from a 17th century Frisian collection of sayings translated from Middle Frisian into modern Frisian by Frederik Johan van de Kuip in De Burmania sprekwurden.  I use van der Kuip’s modern Frisian translations; the English translations in the body of the poems are my own.  I should note that the meaning of the saying in the “Grace unwitting” poem is interpreted differently from that in van der Kuip’s book (dogs tend to be viewed less positively in the 17th century than perhaps they are now, so I use the saying to suggest work that happens without human effort, which differs from the original intent).  Also, the final poem, “Paperpants” is, as you know, a mistranslation of “pepper bag.”  I had translated it as “paper pants” and developed a poem around that translation before I discovered van der Kuip’s correct translation.

These four poems are from a series of poems that I am working on based on a number of Frisian sayings from the Burmania collection.  Recently I published a poem from this series entitled, “Topsy-Turvy,” in The Malahat Review (Summer 2010 issue), which is considered the most prestigious literary magazine in Canada , with the largest number of subscribers for this kind of magazine.