Lawrence F 100

City Lights-grundlægger og beatdigter - OG LYSLEVENDE!

Retired Ballerinas, Central Park West

 

Retired ballerinas on winter afternoons   

          walking their dogs

                      in Central Park West

    (or their cats on leashes—

       the cats themselves old highwire artists)   

The ballerinas

                leap and pirouette

                           through Columbus Circle   

         while winos on park benches

               (laid back like drunken Goudonovs)   

            hear the taxis trumpet together

               like horsemen of the apocalypse   

                               in the dusk of the gods   

It is the final witching hour

                when swains are full of swan songs   

    And all return through the dark dusk   

                to their bright cells

                                  in glass highrises

      or sit down to oval cigarettes and cakes   

                              in the Russian Tea Room   

    or climb four flights to back rooms

                                 in Westside brownstones   

               where faded playbill photos

                        fall peeling from their frames   

                            like last year’s autumn leaves

Lawrence Ferlinghetti, “Retired Ballerinas, Central Park West” from These Are My Rivers. Copyright © 1981 

Og hov, Lawrence Ferlinghetti bliver 95 og det er også i dag

Number 20

The pennycandystore beyond the El
is where I first
fell in love
with unreality
Jellybeans glowed in the semi-gloom
of that september afternoon
A cat upon the counter moved among
the licorice sticks
and tootsie rolls
and Oh Boy Gum

Outside the leaves were falling as they died

A wind had blown away the sun

A girl ran in
Her hair was rainy
Her breasts were breathless in the little room

Outside the leaves were falling
and they cried
Too soon! too soon!

Hong Kong er ikke Hong Kong er ikke Hong Kong

Dan Turèlls vældige digt "Biografi & testamente" fra Drive In-Digte, 1976, begynder som en fordanskning og DK-formatering af den stædigt NU!levende beat-digter Lawrence Felinghettis digt "Autobiography". På et opslag i Renè Højris' lille, fine bog Dan Turèll - samtale og introduktion, 1977, ses de to første sider af DT's eget eksemplar af Ferlinghettis digt; med umiskendelig sirlige fyldepensskrift er forslag til danskificeringer markeret i margenen:

I have not been out to The Cloisters [legendarisk kunstner-værtshus i San Fransisco]
in a long time
nor to the Tuileries [i Paris]
but I still keep thinking
of going

er overstreget til

I have not been out to the Hong Kong [selvfølgelig natværtshuset på Nyhavn]
in a long time
nor to Nykøbing F
men jeg har ikke noget imod
at sé [?´] nogen af dem
Men i den endelig bogversion er Hong Kong blevet til det kineisiske Hong Kong og Nykøbing F til Bornholm, og jeg er ikke sikker på, at det er en forbedring, det er i hvert fald en af-intimisering:

Jeg har ikke været i Hong Kong
og jeg har aldrig været på Bornholm
men jeg har ikke noget imod nogen af dem
og begge dele kan når som helst komme