I just read this in the latest Harper's. One of the selections is titled Poetry Slams, and is a translation of three political poems published in North Korean literary journals. Here is my favorite, "#1 Idiot," by Youngbin Han (trans. Yunhee Lee):
Hey Bush,
You're famous, Mr. American President.
You're really an idiot.
Not just an idiot; you're a swanky idiot.
If they gather all the idiots under the sky
and have a contest to decide who is the real idiot,
then you should hurry and enter the contest.
I'm sure you'll win first place with no problem.
You know, idiots are usually thick-skinned
and don't feel embarrassment,
a sign that shows their stupidity.
So in this respect you are truly born stupid.
When you go to the ranch to rest for a month on a whim,
you are using the talent of yours
that no other idiots could ever have.
If there is a judge who doesn't know that,
he must not be a human from this planet.
Your greatest talent is
your audacity to start a fight with us.
Do you envy the audacity of the tiger moth
that flies into the fire not knowing
he's going to be burned to death?
There are so many different kinds of idiots,
but nobody will dare compete with you.
You have no equals
so you are surely the #1 idiot.
Ha, ha, ha, the #1 idiot is
President Bush of the U.S. now.
_______________________
Now, some parts of this poem are better than others. I welcome discussion, analysis, or critique. Personally, I thought that the "must not be a human from this planet" line was a bit sophomoric, and really did not further the rhetoric, imagery, or flow of the work. The big swinging dick moment (the fifth stanza) is also a weakness: the pissing match rhetoric reproduces the very idiocy that the author seems to be criticizing. Finally, I love the childish glee of the "ha, ha, ha" moment at the end. This is part of the poem that conjures a basic pathos of the temporary glee resulting from hurling an insult.
I'm sure that the those of you who are poets and literature professors might have something more substantial to add. And others, like the Bitch Doctor, may argue that Larry Summers or someone else deserves a fair chance at #1 idiot.
So, who should be nominated for the category of #1 idiot?
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- Michael LeVan
- "--Of the twoheaded octopus, one of whose heads is the head upon which the ends of the world have forgotten to come while the other speaks with a Scotch accent. The tentacles . . ."
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4 comments:
How did you figure out that I am a poet? I guess I'm not working very hard at being anonymous.
I loved the line "you're a swanky idiot." Because that too is what gets me about Bush. He's not just an idiot; he is swanky about it. Lawrence Summers is also a swanky idiot but he does hold as much power as Bush so Bush still gets the prize.
The line I liked from the other poem was "Bushy Bush, Your hair is bushy like a whore who has passed a night without sleep."
Jo(e), LOL! Bushy Bush! (I love that magazine, btw).
I just assumed you were a poet since you write like a poet and you teach all of these poetry classes. Are you a poet who publishes poetry books and poems in poetry journals? Would that be a "professional" poet? Anyway, you seem like you should be.
Well, the word "professional" implies getting paid, I think, and it's a rare poet who makes any money writing poetry. Usually when your poem gets published in a journal, the editor sends you a couple of free copies of the journal. I have sometimes gotten paid for readings but not very much -- it's no way to make a living.
My poems have been published in all sorts of obscure literary journals that no one ever reads. And I have had a chapbook published by an obscure press in the Midwest. I have a longer manuscript of poems that I am currently sending out to presitigious presses that promptly send it right back to me without even reading it.
One of my reasons for blogging actually was to get some practice writing in prose since I'm working on a non-fiction manuscript. So it's funny when people keep telling me in comments that my prose is poetic.
For me, professional means that you have an academic post and someone publishes your work. I think it's a coup if you get to keep copyright.
As for the element of poesis in your work, it just dances on the surface of your style. I think this is beacuse you are so descriptive and attuned to feelings, but also because you can really zero in on the essence of the expereince of some mundane slice of life. So, if you weren't a poet I'd say you were a phenomenologist (non-dry variety). Not that the two are mutually exclusive.
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