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    • Translates into 
      • abkhazian
        afar
        afrikaans
        albanian
        arabic
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        assamese
        azerbaijani
        bashkir
        basque
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        turkish
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        yiddish
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  •  

Michael Ondaatje

To A Sad Daughter

  • 1 The Cinnamon Peeler | Translations: dept
  • 2 The Great Tree | Translations: deru
  • 3 Bearhug | Translations: deru
  • 4 To A Sad Daughter | Translations: deru
  • 5 [What were the names of the towns] | Translations: de
  • 6 [Kissing the stomach] | Translations: deptru
  • 7 Nine Sentiments (IX) | Translations: de
  • 8 Wells II | Translations: de
  • 9 Step | Translations: de
  • 10 Last Ink | Translations: de
Language: english
Translations: german (An eine traurige Tochter), russian (Загрустившей дочери)
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To A Sad Daughter

All night long the hockey pictures
gaze down at you
sleeping in your tracksuit.
Belligerent goalies are your ideal.
Threats of being traded
cuts and wounds
- all this pleases you.
0 my god! you say at breakfast
reading the sports page over the Alpen
as another player breaks his ankle
or assaults the coach.

When I thought of daughters
I wasn't expecting this
but I like this more.
I like all your faults
even your purple moods
when you retreat from everyone
to sit in bed under a quilt.
And when I say 'like'
I mean of course 'love'
but that embarrasses you.
You who feel superior to black and white movies
(coaxed for hours to see Casablanca)
though you were moved
by Creature from the Black Lagoon.

One day I'll come swimming
beside your ship or someone will
and if you hear the siren
listen to it. For if you close your ears
only nothing happens. You will never change.

I don't care if you risk
your life to angry goalies
creatures with webbed feet.
You can enter their caves and castles
their glass laboratories. Just
don't be fooled by anyone but yourself.

This is the first lecture I've given you.
You're 'sweet sixteen' you said.
I'd rather be your closest friend
than your father. I'm not good at advice
you know that, but ride
the ceremonies
until they grow dark.

Sometimes you are so busy
discovering your friends
I ache with a loss
— but that is greed.
And sometimes I've gone
into my purple world
and lost you.

One afternoon I stepped
into your room. You were sitting
at the desk where I now write this.
Forsythia outside the window
and sun spilled over you
like a thick yellow miracle
as if another planet
was coaxing you out of the house
— all those possible worlds! -
and you, meanwhile, busy with mathematics.

I cannot look at forsythia now
without loss, or joy for you.
You step delicately
into the wild world
and your real prize will be
the frantic search.
Want everything. If you break
break going out not in.
How you live your life I don't care
but I'll sell my arms for you,
hold your secrets for ever.

If I speak of death
which you fear now, greatly,
it is without answers,
except that each
one we know is
in our blood.
Don't recall graves.
Memory is permanent.
Remember the afternoon's
yellow suburban annunciation.
Your goalie
in his frightening mask
dreams perhaps
of gentleness.

© Michael Ondaatje
Published with permission of the author
Audio production: Literaturwerkstatt Berlin 2010

Translations:

Language: german

An eine traurige Tochter

Die ganze Nacht blicken die Hockeybilder
herunter auf dich,
während du, in deinem Trainingsanzug, schläfst.
Kriegerische Torhüter sind dein Idol.
Drohungen, ausgetauscht zu werden,
Schnitte und Wunden
– all das gefällt dir.
O mein Gott! sagst du beim Frühstück,
während du über dem Alpen-Müsli die Sportseite liest,
schon wieder hat ein Spieler sich den Knöchel gebrochen
oder den Trainer attackiert.

Als ich an Töchter dachte,
habe ich etwas anderes erwartet,
aber so ist es mir lieber.
Ich mag alle deine Fehler,
sogar deine dunklen Launen,
wenn du dich von allen zurückziehst
und auf dem Bett unter einer Steppdecke sitzt.
Und wenn ich ›mögen‹ sage,
dann meine ich natürlich ›lieben‹,
aber das wäre dir peinlich.
Wo du dich doch über Schwarzweißfilme erhaben fühlst
(zu Casablanca mußte man dich stundenlang überreden),
obwohl du von Creature from the Black Lagoon
gerührt warst.

Eines Tages komme ich längsseits
zu deinem Schiff geschwommen, oder ein andrer wird es tun,
und wenn du die Sirene hörst,
gib auf sie acht. Denn wenn du deine Ohren schließt,
passiert bloß: nichts. Du wirst dich nie verändern.

Es ist mir egal, ob du dein Leben
für aufgebrachte Torhüter riskierst,
Wesen mit Schwimmhäuten an den Füßen.
Geh ruhig in ihre Höhlen und Schlösser,
ihre Labors aus Glas. Nur laß dich
von niemand anderem zum Narren halten als von dir selbst.

Dies ist die erste Predigt, die ich dir halte.
Du bist ›süße sechzehn‹, hast du gesagt.
Ich wäre lieber dein engster Freund
als dein Vater. Ich bin nicht gut als Ratgeber,
das weißt du; dafür reite ich
auf Förmlichkeiten herum,
bis sie schwarz werden.

Manchmal gehst du so darin auf,
deine Freunde zu entdecken,
daß es mir wehtut wie ein Verlust
– doch das ist Habsucht.
Und manchmal bin ich fort
in meiner eigenen dunklen Welt
und habe dich verloren.

Eines Nachmittags kam ich
in dein Zimmer. Du saßest an dem Tisch,
an dem ich das jetzt schreibe.
Forsythien vor dem Fenster
und die Sonne flutete über dich
wie ein kompaktes gelbes Wunder
als locke ein anderer Planet
dich aus dem Haus
– all diese möglichen Welten! –
und du warst über den Matheaufgaben.

Jetzt kann ich keine Forsythien ansehen
ohne Verlust, oder die Freude an dir.
Du trittst behutsam hinaus
in die wilde Welt,
und dein wahrer Hauptgewinn
wird die rasende Suche sein.
Wünsch dir alles. Wenn du zerbrichst,
dann zerbrich nach draußen, nicht nach innen.
Wie du dein Leben lebst, ist mir egal,
aber ich verkaufe meine Arme für dich,
hüte deine Geheimnisse für immer.

Wenn ich vom Tod rede,
den du jetzt sehr fürchtest,
dann ohne Antworten
außer der, daß jeder,
den wir kennen,
uns im Blut steckt.
Denk nicht zurück an Gräber.
Das Gedächtnis überdauert.
Erinnere dich an die gelbe
Vorstadtverkündigung des Nachmittags.
Dein Torwart
in seiner furchteinflößenden Maske
träumt vielleicht
von Freundlichkeit.

Aus dem Englischen von Simon Werle
Language: russian

Загрустившей дочери

Всю ночь твои хоккейные картинки
пялятся на тебя,
спящую в спортивном костюме.
Задиристые вратари — твой идеал.
Угрозы на продажу выставить,
ушибы, травмы —
всё это по тебе.
Ах, чёрт! — ты восклицаешь, завтракая,
спортивные страницы над тарелкой хлопьев:
ещё один игрок сломал лодыжку
или разругался с тренером.

Когда я думал о дочках,
я такого не ждал,
но так мне нравится даже больше.
Мне нравятся все твои прегрешения,
даже когда тебе фиолетово,
то есть когда ты сбегаешь от всех
и сидишь на кровати под одеялком.
Говоря «нравится»,
я, конечно, имею в виду «люблю»,
но это тебя смущает.
Ведь чёрно-белые фильмы не для тебя, ты выше этого
(часами уламывал посмотреть «Касабланку»),
хотя тебя и тронула
«Тварь из Чёрной лагуны».

Когда-нибудь я (а может, и кто другой)
поплыву за твоим кораблём,
а ты, услышав сирену,
прислушайся. Потому что если уши зажмёшь,
не случится вообще ничего. Так и останешься прежней.

Твоё дело, попробуй, рискни
своей жизнью ради ярящихся вратарей,
ластоногих тварей.
Ворвись, если хочешь, в их пещеры и замки,
в их стеклянные лаборатории. Главное —
не дай никому одурачить себя, кроме себя самой.

Это был мой первый урок для тебя.
Ты ответила, что тебе как раз сладких шестнадцать.
Я бы лучше был тебе лучшим другом,
чем отцом. Советчик из меня не особо,
ты знаешь сама, я гарцую
на церемонных формальностях,
пока их смысл не затмится совсем.

Порой ты так занята,
открывая для себя своих друзей,
что у меня болит и ноет, как от потери,
но это всего лишь скаредность.
А порой и мне случалось уйти
в мир, где мне фиолетово,
и потерять тебя.

Как-то днём я зашёл
к тебе в комнату. Ты сидела
за столом, где я сейчас всё это пишу.
Форзиция цвела за окном,
и солнце тебя заливало,
словно густое жёлтое чудо,
как если бы с какой-то другой планеты
тебя уламывали выйти из дому
— ведь столько возможных миров вокруг! —
но ты была занята математикой.

Теперь не могу смотреть на эту форзицию
без чувства потери, без радости за тебя.
Ты осторожно вступаешь
в наш безумный мир,
и главной наградой тебе
будет неистовый поиск.
Так желай всего. А если ломаешь и рушишь,
то на выходе, не на входе.
Как ты живёшь — твоё дело,
но я запродам свои руки ради тебя,
а твои секреты сохраню навсегда.

Если же говорить о смерти,
которая сейчас пугает тебя, ещё как,
то ответов тут нет,
только вот что: каждый,
кого мы знаем,
у нас в крови.
Могилы тут ни при чём.
Память неизбывна.
Вспомни то полуденное
пригородное жёлтое благовещенье.
А твой вратарь
под своей устрашающей маской
мечтает, возможно,
о нежности.

Перевёл с английского Дмитрий Кузьмин
Dmitry Kuzmin
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Michael Ondaatje

photo © gezett.de
* 12.09.1943, Colombo, Sri Lanka
lives in: Toronto, Canada

Michael Ondaatje was born in Colombo, Sri Lanka (then Ceylon) on 12 September 1943. The poet and novelist with Dutch-Tamil-Sinhalese roots moved with his mother in 1954 to England, and later in 1962 to Canada, where he became a Canadian citizen and has lived ever since.

He was educated at the University of Toronto and Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario. From 1971 till 1983 he teached at York University in Toronto, and afterwards at Glendon College in Toronto.

 photo © gezett.de
He received the Order of Canada in 1988.

He is perhaps best known for his Booker Prize-winning novel, The English Patient, which was adapted into an Academy-Award-winning film (9 Oscars). Although he is best known as a novelist, Ondaatje's work also includes autobiography, poetry and film.

He has published thirteen books of poetry, and won the Canadian Governor General's Award for two of them: The Collected Works of Billy the Kid (1970) and There's a Trick With a Knife I'm Learning to Do: Poems 1973-1978 (1979). Other important collections of poetry are The Cinnamon Peeler. Selected Poems (1989) and Handwriting (1998).

Michael Ondaatje lives in Toronto.

Publications
  • The Dainty Monsters

    [poetry]

    Toronto: Coach House Press, 1967

  • The Man with Seven Toes

    [poetry]

    Toronto: Coach House Press, 1969

  • The Collected Works of Billy the Kid: Left Handed Poems

    [poetry]

    Toronto: Anansi, 1970

  • Leonard Cohen

    [literary criticism]

    Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1970

  • The Broken Ark

    Animal verse/A Book of Beasts

    with drawings by Tony Urquhart

    Toronto: Oberon Press, 1971

  • Rat Jelly

    [poetry]

    Toronto: Coach House Press, 1973

  • Coming Through Slaughter

    [prose]

    Toronto: Anansi, 1976

  • Elimination Dance

    [poetry]

    Ilderton: Nairn Coldstream, 1978

  • Claude Glass

    [literary criticism]

    Toronto: Coach House Press, 1979

  • There’s a Trick with a Knife I’m Learning to Do

    Poems 1963-1978

    Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1979

  • The Long Poem Anthology

    Edit. by Michael Ondaatje

    Toronto: Coach House Press, 1979

  • Tin Roof

    [poetry]

    Lantzville: Island Writing Series, 1982

  • Running in the Family

    [memoir]

    Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1982

  • Secular Love

    [poetry]

    Toronto: Coach House Press, 1984

  • All along the Mazinaw

    Two Poems

    Milwaukie, Wisconsin: Woodland Pattern, 1986

  • In the Skin of a Lion

    [novel]

    Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1987

  • The Cinnamon Peeler

    Selected Poems

    Picador, 1989

  • Brushes with Greatness

    An Anthology of Chance Encounters with Celebrities

    Edit. by Michael Ondaatje together with Russell Banks and David Young

    Toronto: Coach House Press, 1989

  • From Ink Lake

    Canadian Stories

    [anthologie]

    Toronto: Knopf, 1990

  • The Brick Anthology

    A Reader

    with Linda Spalding

    Toronto: Coach House Press, 1991

  • The English Patient

    [novel]

    New York: Knopf, 1992

  • An H in the Heart

    A Reader

    Edit. by Michael Ondaatje with B. P. Nichol and George Bowering

    Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1994

  • Handwriting

    [poetry]

    Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1998

  • Anil’s Ghost

    [novel]

    Toronto: McCelland and Stewart, 2000

  • Lost Classics

    Edit. by Michael Ondaatje together with Michael Redhill, Esta Spalding & Linda Spalding

    Bloomsbury, 2001

  • The Story

    [poetry]

    illustrated by David Bolduc

    Toronto: House of Anansi Press, 2006

  • Divisadero

    [novel]

    New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2007

  • The Cat's Table

    [novel]

    Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 2011

  • Warlight

    [novel]

    New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2018

Awards
  • 1965 Ralph Gustafson Award

  • 1966 E. J. Pratt Medal

  • 1966 Epstein Award

  • 1967 President's Medal (University of Western Ontario)

  • 1971 Governor General's Literary Award for Fiction (Canada)
    for The Collected Works of Billy the Kid

  • 1980 Governor General's Literary Award for Fiction (Canada)
    There's a Trick with a Knife I'm Learning to Do

  • 1988 Order of Canada

  • 1992 Booker Prize for Fiction
    The English Patient

  • 1992 Governor General's Literary Award for Fiction (Canada)
    for The English Patient

  • 2000 Giller Prize (Canada)
    for Anil's Ghost

  • 2000 Governor General's Literary Award for Fiction (Canada)
    for Anil's Ghost

  • 2000 Kiriyama Pacific Rim Book Prize
    for Anil's Ghost

  • 2000 Prix Médicis (France)
    for Anil's Ghost

  • 2007 Man Booker International Prize (shortlist)

  • 2007 Scotiabank Giller Prize (shortlist)
    Divisadero

  • 2008 Commonwealth Writers Prize (Caribbean and Canada Region, Best Book) (shortlist)
    Divisadero

Links
  • a short interview with Michael Ondaatje

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