Contemporary Concrete Poetry (in Finnish: Nykykonkreettista runoutta) presents traditional concrete poetry and YouTube comments. The book seeks to highlight how YouTube comments sometimes evoke the aesthetics of early concrete poetry (especially the writing of Eugen Gomringer).
The concrete movement was very international, and one of its goals was to create poetry that was universal and understandable even if the poet and the reader did not speak the same language. The YouTube comments area is likewise international. Maybe the urge to be understood by other commentators from all over the world is the reason behind YouTube comments' occasional resemblance to concrete poetry? Or maybe it is just our natural impulse to play with letters, words, and images. In a literary context such play is called art, and in other contexts it's called...well, nothing. In this book, hopefully, the boundary between high and low is blurred, not so that concrete poetry is seen as trivial, but so that the reader can perceive the poetical dimensions in YouTube comments.
Finnish search-engine poet Tytti Heikkinen is the author of two books, 2008's Täytetyn eläimen lämpo (Taxidermied Animal's Warmth) and 2009's Varjot astronauteista (Shadows From Astronauts), both from poEsia. Helsingin Sanomat nominated her first book for its book prize, saying in the accompanying review that her work "challenged poetry to a new level." Heikkinen uses new digital media to tackle issues of authorship in brave and often funny ways, and for this she has been critically praised.
Heikkinen's poems have a total effect at once light and devastating. They are overlaid with both a classic, quiet, characteristically Nordic dark, and a bloggy, confrontational, postmodern self-awareness. This duality is what first attracted me to Heikkinen's work, and it is also at the center of our collaboration, which goes something like this: Heikkinen sends me an enthusiastic email. I retreat to process the information quietly. Heikkinen sends me a pithy reply and tells me to get shit done.
Our correspondence has been reckless, wordy, occasionally drunken, and always passionate. It has become exceedingly clear that neither of us is perfect, but the poems stubbornly push past all personal matters, and what they invoke is pure.
The translations featured here began to take shape in the spring of 2009, and portions of the project are found or forthcoming in At-Large Magazine and PRECIPICe.
(Niina Pollari)
The Brooklyn Rail welcomes you to our web-exclusive section InTranslation, where we feature unpublished translations of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and dramatic writing. Published since April 2007, InTranslation is a venue for outstanding work in translation and a resource for translators, authors, editors, and publishers seeking to collaborate.
We seek exceptional unpublished English translations from all languages.
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