for Nikola Sop and W.H. Auden*
Having never read the
original
I can only guess the
content
From its evocative
title.
And what I guess is
this:
First Astronaut: “Hey,
man.
“You seeing what I’m
seeing?”
Second Astronaut: “that
all
“depends. You seeing a
rooster
“in free-float?—comb
erect,
“dignified as any space
rooster
“that has likely ever
lived?”
First Astronaut: “That’s
it,
“yeah. Which, I’m glad
you
“see that too. Because
honestly?
“I thought I’d lost my fucking
mind.”*
________________________
*original “Space Scene With Rooster” (1971) by Nikola Sop, published in Encounter, translation from the Croat by W.H. Auden. I haven’t bothered looking for it, though.
If a rooster crows in zero gravity, does it make a sound?
<Thus spake Zarathustra soundtrack goes here>
Jeff – get away from here!
Save it for Tuesday, if you really have to. It’s not snowing in Colorado today.
I was reading an article where I came across the title of the original Sop poem, “Space Scene With Rooster,” and it forced me to write this poem.
Because you just can’t leave a great title like that just, y’know, floating out there with no content attached to it.
Well … it is g.. great!
Thanks for the post Jeff,
I wasn’t really looking forward to going cold turkey.
So much depends on
a space rooster
in zero g
by a confused astronaut.
Why Space Rooster and not Space Cock ?
Farouk.. what are you doing back here ? How do you have TIME to be here ? Get back to to Paradise.. Wives 15 through 30 are waiting..
There really is a poet by the name of Sop?
BTW whatever happened to your two Fallujan jihadis? How about a “Further Adventures of….”?
I usually bust those out when the US military goes on a big terrorist-clearing offensive. I’m sure those charming bunker dwellers will be back.
That really needs a photosop to go with it.
I’m not up for it, but
a GIS of “space chicken” was surprisingly fruitful.
p.s. Saw same or similar article in the Weekly Standardmentioning Sop, and for some reason, thought of you. Heh.
Perhaps you could reprise with “lunar drake”.
This is Major Tom to ground con-trol, I’m stepping through the door. And a rooster is floating in the most peculiar way. And the comb looks very different today.
For here am I sitting in a tin can, far above the world. Planet Earth is blue and the rooster won’t shut up.
Though I’m passed one hundred thousand miles, I’m feeling very still. And I think my rooster knows which way to go, Tell the farmer I have his rooster he knows.
Do not click.
If I were one of your students, I’d go back and re-read “Still Life with Woodpecker” and seek a connection between Robbins and Sop.
Like, don’t Roosters have red hair-like combs, or sumpthin’?
Excellent, Beck.
– Nothing like posting in the wrong thread to clear the sinuses….then again it IS Sunday….
– I give them 5 minutes and they’ll be arguing about who’s “comb†is the largest…
– Just wait til they discover “flying space hensâ€Â, and the difficulties of egg laying in space, although the Ruskki’s have blazed some trails in that area…
Hmmm… that left a fowl taste in my mouth….
Jeff, I really enjoy your writing, but one thing I can’t abide is audio that plays automatically when you load a web page. I put you on mute long enough to post this comment, but if the auto audio play stays, I probably won’t beming around much anymore. Maybe you could write a book—I’d buy and read it without the sound effects.
Nolo
Beck.. hahahhaahha ! That was excellent ! I could here Bowie’s voice singing that..
Sir Elton adds;
And I think it’s gonna be a long long time
Till touch down brings me round again to find
I’m not as sane as they think I am at home
Oh no no no.. It’s a rooster, man ….
Rooster, man.. floating right outside my capsule.
Space ain’t the kind of place to raise your chicks
In fact it’s cold as hell
And there’s no hens here to raise them
if you did ..
But this rooster, I don’t understand..
He just floats outside five days a week
It’s rooster, man.. a rooster, man…
And I think it’s gonna be a long long time…
And I think it’s gonna be a long long time…
And I think it’s gonna be a long long time…
Nolo –
What browser are you using? Because the code for the media player has autostart set to “false.”
Unfortunately, I know nothing about this stuff. Somebody sent me the code to put the show up and I pasted it into Expression Engine.
Here’s what the code looks like: [<object id=”MediaPlayer” width=”320″ height=”65″ classid=”CLSID:22d6f312-b0f6-11d0-94ab-0080c74c7e95″ standby=”Loading Windows Media Player components…” type=”application/x-oleobject”>
<embed type=”application/x-mplayer2″ src=”http://www.dailyrecycler.net/audio/4D3_050414_24K.mp3″ width=”320″ height=”65″ autostart=”false”>
<embed>
<object>]
If you can tell me how to set it so that the audio doesn’t play automatically, I’d appreciate it.
– Its working fine Jeff…..Doesn’t start unless you click on it
Hmm. Must be a problem with a particular browser, then.
It auto-plays in Safari, too. Go figure.
In Mozilla Firefox it starts autoplay, but scrolling down first thing and hitting the “stop” button works. I figured that out all by myself. . .
There’s audio?
Beeing a grandson of the poet you are talking about, it made me quite sad to read your mails.
To my opinion, Sop is one of the most interesting poets of our time, but before you judge me as not objective enough, perhaps you should read his poems yourself? Please, excuse my bad english – I did not use it for a long, long time, and had no dictionary arround.
Adrian
I probably introduced your grandfather’s poetry to more Americans in one day than would have happened in 10 years had I not re-imagineed his poem.
I have no idea why a completely different poem would make you sad. But I’m sure you’ll recover.
Even the fact that you probbaly did introduce the Name of my grandfather “to more Americans in one day than it would have happened in 10 years” by writing your own poetry is sad enough. You introduced his name although, not his poetry. But what originaly made me sad was your last statement considering Sop’original poetry: “I haven’t bothered looking for it, though.” I have no reason to bealive that anyone else will.
I meant I haven’t bothered looking for Encounter, in which the original “Space Scene with Rooster” was published. However, an article about his poetry—which includes some of the Auden translations—was linked above (as an orange *). Unfortunately, you need to be a Weekly Standard subscriber to read the whole thing online. I am a subscriber, and it was after I read the article in the paper edition that I wrote the poem.