TWO SONNETS FROM HENRY STREET ARCADE WITH TRANSLATIONS INTO FRENCH BY YAN KOUTON - LIVE ENCOUTERS

In 2016, I knew there would be a stream of writing written in Ireland to commemorate the rising which the GPO in O'Connell Street has become so symbolic of. While a few fine poems, no doubt, were written to commemorate the events, there was also an awful lot of cashing in by a lot of very mediocre 'poets'. I stayed away until towards the end of the year, I got a job in a language school on Capel Street. I worked there at the end of 2016 and all the way through 2017. 

I used to get off the commuter train at Connolly Station, after typically spending my time on the train translating some poems by Charles Baudelaire. It beats Sudoku, believe me! Well, passing the GPO everyday got me thinking. I used to cross through the old GPO Arcade every morning, and of course it reminded me of the wonderful arcades in Paris that I used to sometimes pass through. That got me thinking...

I got a present of Walter Benjamin's Arcades book, published by Harvard. Its a beautiful publication. I was so impressed by Benjamin's great monograph on Baudelaire A Lyric Poet in a Time of High Capitalism. For me, it is one of the most remarkable critical texts on a book of poems ever written, as Benjamin does not merely confine himself to mere literary theory. Instead, he is concerned with the social, economic - as the title of the work would suggest - historic and political context in which the poet lived and moved.

I always hated uniquely literary folk, as they can be so out of tune with the world. They are also typically conceited and pretentious without having any reason to be, as typically they are social idiots, I know as I have met many in my time. 

All true poets are lone wolves. They do not need the boredom of the literary group. The politically correct. The glaringly envious, and the utterly talentless. 

Amen!

Read em' and weep!

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