Clare has been translated into precious few languages. Few translators have given themselves the onerous task of finding a word in a Target Language for “clock-a-clay’ or for ‘bumbarrel’. What is the Esperanto word for ‘plashy’, or the Klingon word for ”pettichap’? These are problems a translator must confront, and even in our AI-laden age, one suspects Google Translate is incapable of reaching into John Clare’s head and working out exactly which garden bird he was rhapsodising.
The problem manifests itself equally in “Remembrances”. Clare refers to a series of games that require some serious research to try and discover what they are. On discovering, one discovers they are games played with marbles we no longer have. Introducing them back to the British schoolyard is going to be a serious challenge. When was the last time anyone challenged you to a good round of “ducking stone”?
Luckily, “ducking stone” can be played in Hebrew, thanks to the intervention of a PhD student at the University of St. Andrews, Hemdat Kislev. This translation of Clare came about how any naturally should – it was produced on the back of a handout I’d provided on a talk on childhood: translation as childhood play. The strange koans of “chock” and “taw” are rendered as Hebrew games.
Remembrances
Summer pleasures they are gone like to visions every one
And the cloudy days of autumn and of winter cometh on
I tried to call them back but unbidden they are gone
Far away from heart and eye and for ever far away
Dear heart and can it be that such raptures meet decay
I thought them all eternal when by Langley Bush I lay
I thought them joys eternal when I used to shout and play
On its bank at ‘clink and bandy’ ‘chock’ and ‘taw’ and ‘ducking stone’
Where silence sitteth now on the wild heath as her own
Like a ruin of the past all alone
כל תענוגות הקיץ כחזיונות חלפו,
וימי עננה של סתיו וחורף באו.
ניסיתי לקרוא להם לשוב, אך ללא מען הם נסו
נסתרים מהלב והעין רחוקי עד יהיו.
לב יקר, הייתכן שריגושים אלו ידעכו?
כשרבצתי בלנגלי בוש שיוויתי שהם נצחיים,
כששיחקתי וצהלתי שיוויתי שהם לעד מאושרים
עת שיחקתי על גדת הנהר ‘מחבואים’, ‘תופסת’ וה’כדרים באים’,
היכן שהדממה עכשיו יושבת עם עצמה בשדה פראי
כהריסה בודדת של עברי.
Kol ta’anugot ha-kaitz ke-chezionot chalfu
U-yemey anana shel stav u-choref bau.
Nisiti likro lahem lashuv, ach le-lo ma’an hem nasu
Nistarim me-ha-lev ve-ha-ayin rechukey ad ihiyu.
Lev yakar, ha-yitachen she-rigushim elu yidachu?
Kshe-ravatzti be-lengly boosh shiviti she-hem nitzchiyim,
Kshe-sichakti ve-tzahalti shiviti she-hem la’ad meusharim.
Et sichakti al gdat ha-nahar ‘machboyim’, ‘tofeset’, ve ‘ha-kadarim bayim’,
Heichan she-ha-dmama achshav yoshevet eem atzma be-sade prayi
Ke-harisa bodedet shel avari
Squidditas 