Having recently acquired a poetry book by going to Sandown races, my latest surprise came in the less surprising circumstances of a poetry club meeting.
Aizhan Muhamedzhanova is a Russian poet who has translated her own poems into English.
A translation is never the same as the poem. It can't be because the language it is translated into can't replicate the music of the original language. So, should the translator favour a literal approach and show the meaning of the poem or produce a new version of the poem based on the original.
It's difficult. Poetry only really exists in its first language.
Aizhan begins a number of these translations with rhymed lines but then gets as close as she can to her meaning. They are poems of great positivity and spirit.
A favourite is Rain,
I am not so sure why
Noise of beads from cloudy sky
Knocking on my window.
Melody of droplets' sound
Opening the door of heart:
All the memories of life
I can easily rewind.
There might be more fluent versions to be made in English but they might not say what the poem дождь says.
Rain ends in brightness and these poems in general are upbeat, overcoming their perceived difficulties by going beyond the 'disorder of prosaic day' or 'self-deception' into 'bliss and paradise' or 'the radiance of new today'.
Those of us usually more sceptical, downbeat or ironic might like to take a break from ourselves and spend a few minutes with a more refreshing point of view.
But the 'poetry' exists in the Russian and even if one knows only half a dozen words of Russian (pivo, glasnost, mir, etc.), one can appreciate the energy, passion and intensity of them in their music. Luckily, we can do that on You Tube,