0-The University of California Book of North African Literature
1-Exile is My Trade: A Habib Tengour Reader edited & translated by Pierre Joris
2-Pierre Joris: Cartographies of the In-Between edited by Peter Cockelbergh
3-Paul Celan: The Meridian Final Version—Drafts—Materials
Justifying the Margins (Essays)
On Saturday a Tuli Kupferberg homage was held at Saint Marks in the Bowery’s Poetry Project. The Fugs performed a number of Tuli’s songs, and some 40 plus people spoke or read to honor Tuli, in the very full hall. Below, my amateurish recording of the Fugs doing a Tuli song (an extract, really), and below that my translation of the 1969 Claude Pélieu poem dedicated to Tuli, which I read in the original French & in my instant translation (just add English) after suggesting that Claude, who called it splitsville back in 2002, was no doubt hanging out near the Pearly Gates to throw a reception party for Tuli when he arrived.
Claude Pélieu
IDIOT SONG
(for Tuli)
Silence staved in the ripe wheat
& the body attacked the body
Light sawed through the fog
& the music knocked over the chamber maid
The silex-emerald of sex set fire to
the calendar
A short line a long line
a black one a white one
we couldn't care less we don't give a fuck
The spicy stars pinch
thought's ass.
Claude was waiting impatiently with Mary at his side. Here is Mary Beach’s translation of the same poem from Jukeboxes:
AN IDIOTIC SONG
(For Tuli)
Silence has knocked down the ripe wheat
& the body attacked the body
Light has sawed through the fog
& music knocked down the chambermaid
The sex’s emerald flint set fire to
the calendar
A short line a long line
one black one white
don’t give a fuck who cares
spiced stars pinch
thought’s ass —