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Mary Jo Bang

C Is for Cher

  • 1 C Is for Cher | Translations: de
  • 2 E Is Everywhere | Translations: de
  • 3 In the Present and Probable Future | Translations: de
  • 4 Girls Dress Well to Stave Off Chaos | Translations: de
  • 5 The Star's Whole Secret | Translations: de
  • 6 Louise In Love | Translations: de
  • 7 Catastrophe Theory IV | Translations: de
  • 8 Mrs. Autumn and Her Two Daughters | Translations: de
  • 9 The Eye Like a Strange Balloon Mounts Toward Infinity | Translations: de
  • 10 Worse | Translations: de
Language: english
Translations: german (C steht für Cher)
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C Is for Cher

Culture miniature and clad as Cleopatra, she descends
A set of semicircular steps
Tiled in a geometric mosaic pattern

And there she finds the answer: everything
Changes depending on whether
You're up or down. Behind her,

A high-relief rectangle proscenium,
Beside her, whatever intrigued her last.
An unofficial fan leaps feverishly into action, At that,

She seems to multiply. History will be filled
With the shower of dots that will become her.
At that, she becomes. It's complex.

Through the glass she sees a pair of dazzling slippers,
At dinner, her drink was called a Vladimir,
Hers was the plate that contained Washington oysters.

There she held a fork. There she was on a stage
Of discourse. Of course. Mickey Mouse comes over
And stops to stare. Cher is dressed a long gold dress.

The sequins form stripes. »If I could turn back time.«
She’s singing. And Mickey in his red pants is acting
Like the good will minister to an enraptured world.

Mickey thinks. He turns the corner.
To the gift shop: ever open.
He buys retractable mother-of-pearl opera glasses

As a present. Yes, it’s over. The present.
In which you discovered forward-thinking thought.

© Mary Jo Bang
From: The Bride of E
Graywolf Press, 2009
Audio production: Literaturwerkstatt Berlin 2011

Translations:

Language: german

C steht für Cher

Kultur-Miniatur und gekleidet wie Kleopatra steigt sie
Eine Treppe halbrunder Stufen hinab,
Die mit einem geometrischen Mosaik gefliest sind.

Und dort findet sie die Antwort: alles
Verändert sich, je nachdem,
Ob du oben oder unten bist. Hinter ihr

Erscheint im Relief und rechteckig das Proszenium,
Neben ihr: was immer sie als Letztes faszinierte.
Ein inoffizieller Fan wird fieberhaft aktiv. Da

Scheint sie sich zu vervielfachen. Die Geschichte wird voll sein
Vom Rieseln winziger Punkte, aus dem sie entstehen wird.
Und da ersteht sie. Es ist komplex.

Durch das Glas sieht sie ein Paar schillernde Pantoletten.
Beim Dinner hieß ihr Drink Vladimir,
Ihr Teller der mit den Austern aus Washington.

Dort hielt sie eine Gabel. Dort stand sie auf einer Stufe
Des Diskurses, Gewiss. Mickey Mouse kommt vorbei
Und hält an, um zu glotzen. Cher trägt ein langes goldenes Kleid.

Die Pailletten bilden Streifen. »If I could turn back time.«
Sie singt. Und Mickey in seinen roten Hosen schauspielert,
Gibt den Botschafter des guten Willens vor einer bezauberten Welt.

Mickey denkt nach. Er biegt um die Ecke.
Zum Souvenirladen: Immer offen.
Er kauft ein faltbares Opernglas aus Perlmutt

Als Präsent. Ja, sie ist vorbei. Die Gegenwart.
In der du voraus denkendes Denken entdecktest.

Übersetzung von Barbara Thimm
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Mary Jo Bang

* 22.10.1946, Ferguson, United States
lives in: St. Louis, United States

The poet Mary Jo Bang grew up in Ferguson, Missouri. She lives in St. Louis, Missouri where she is working at Washington University as a professor of English and as the director of the Creative Writing Program. She was awarded numerous prizes and fellowships, such as a Bread Loaf Writers' Conference Fellowship in 1997, a Yaddo Fellowship in 1998 and a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2004. Her poems got published in various magazines like the New York Times, the Harvard Review, the New American Writing and in several anthologies like Best American Poetry. She is the recipient of various awards, including a Pushcart Prize. In 2007 she received the National Book Critics Circle Award for her book Elegy, which was estimated by the New York Times to be one of the most important books of the year. She was the poetry co-editor of the Boston Review from 1995 to 2005.

Bang contrasts in her poems a glamorous, American world with the dark regions of human existence, full of existential threat, emotional uncertainty and insatiable longing. She questions for instance the complex relation of modern media and human perception.

Publications
  • Apology for Want

    Hanover, NH: University Press of New England, 1997

  • Louise in Love

    New York, NY: Grove Atlantic, 2001

  • The Downstream Extremity of the Isle of Swans

    University of Georgia Press, 2001

  • The Eye Like a strange Ballon

    New York, NY: Grove Atlantic, 2004

  • Elegy

    St. Paul, MN: Graywolf Press, 2007

  • The Bride of E

    St. Paul, MN: Graywolf Press, 2009

  • Eskapaden

    Selected Poems. German/English

    Übersetzung: Barbara Thimm

    Wiesbaden: Luxbooks, 2010

  • The Last Two Seconds

    Poems

    2015

  • Elegie

    Englisch | Deutsch

    Aus dem Englischen übersetzt von Matthias Göritz und Uda Strätling. Mit einem Nachwort von Matthias Göritz

    Göttingen: Wallstein Verlag, 2018

Prizes
  • 1994 Columbia University School of the Arts Dean's Award

  • 1995 "Discovery" The Nation Poetry Award

  • 1996 Katharine Bakeless Nason Publication Prize

  • 1998 Great Lakes Colleges Association New Writer's Award

  • 2003 Pushcart Prize

  • 2005 Poetry Society of American’s Alice Fay di Castagnola Award

  • 2006 Anna Akhmatova Award

  • 2007 National Book Critics Circle Award

  • 2007 Washington University Faculty Research Grant

  • 2007 National Book Critics Circle Award

Links
  • Mary Jo Bang @ Poetry Foundation

    Website

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