Translation makes me look at how a poem is put together in a different way, without the personal investment of the poem I'm writing myself, but equally closely technically. Marilyn Hacker More Quotes by Marilyn Hacker More Quotes From Marilyn Hacker Everyone thinks they're going to write one book of poems or one novel. Marilyn Hacker writing book thinking I worked at all kinds of jobs, mostly commercial editing. Marilyn Hacker kind editing jobs Clearly, once the student is no longer a student the possibilities of relationship are enlarged. Marilyn Hacker possibility students literature Perhaps first and foremost is the challenge of taking what I find as a reader and making it into a poem that, primarily, has to be a plausible poem in English. Marilyn Hacker reader challenges firsts The pleasure that I take in writing gets me interested in writing a poem. It's not a statement about what I think anybody else should be doing. For me, it's an interesting tension between interior and exterior. Marilyn Hacker writing interesting thinking The phenomenon of university creative writing programs doesn't exist in France. The whole idea is regarded as a novelty, or an oddity. Marilyn Hacker oddities writing ideas The pull between sound and syntax creates a kind of musical tension in the language that interests me. Marilyn Hacker syntax musical sound Good writing gives energy, whatever it is about. Marilyn Hacker energy writing giving I lived in the studio apartment that I bought for four years before I bought it in 1989, so I was already in it. I began living there in 1985, so I've had the same address and phone number since then. Marilyn Hacker phones numbers years I think there is something about coming to a city to work that puts you in touch with it in a different way. Marilyn Hacker cities literature thinking When you translate poetry in particular, you're obliged to look at how the writer with whom you're working puts together words, sentences, phrases, the triple tension between the line of verse, the syntax and the sentence. Marilyn Hacker syntax together looks Translation is an interestingly different way to be involved both with poetry and with the language that I've found myself living in much of the time. I think the two feed each other. Marilyn Hacker different two thinking I don't know whether a poem has be there to help to develop something. I think it's there for itself, for what the reader finds in it. Marilyn Hacker literature helping thinking I don't think it's by accident that I was first attracted to translating two French women poets. Marilyn Hacker literature two thinking I try to write everyday. I do that much better over here than when I'm teaching. I always rewrite, usually fairly close-on which is to say first draft, then put it aside for 24 hours then more drafts. Marilyn Hacker everyday teaching writing I wonder what it means about American literary culture and its transmission when I consider the number of American poets who earn their living teaching creative writing in universities. I've ended up doing that myself. Marilyn Hacker teaching writing mean I'm addicted to email, but other than that, there are practical things - being able to buy a book on the internet that you can't find in your local bookshop. This could be a lifeline if you live further from the sources. Marilyn Hacker email literature book My mother was told she couldn't go to medical school because she was a woman and a Jew. So she became a teacher in the New York City public school system. Marilyn Hacker new-york mother teacher Paris is a wonderful city. I can't say I belong to an especially anglophone community. Marilyn Hacker paris community cities Poetry seems to have been eliminated as a literary genre, and installed instead, as a kind of spiritual aerobic exercise - nobody need read it, but anybody can do it. Marilyn Hacker literary-genre spiritual exercise
