In the last post, we asked you to listen to “America” and “A Supermarket in California” in Lithuanian. How about “Death to Van Gogh’s Ear” in Icelandic?!
Eirikur Orn Nieodahl‘s Maikonungirinn, (Howl), published in an edition with a format not unlike the famous City Lights book, came out in 2009. Eirikur, still in his early thirties, remains one of the youngest of Allen’s translators. Poet, novelist (three novels published so far!), translator, performer.. His own work, leaning significantly on the performative and the experimental, may be heard here and here. Recent involvement with the American “Flarf” collective, and one member in particular, Sharon Mesmer, (a sometime student of Allen’s at Brooklyn College), led to this lively and stimulating exchange.
I wasn't a "sometime" student of Allen's at BC … he was my thesis advisor and I had him for one-on-one tutorials as well as workshops for two years. He nominated me for (and I received) a MacArthur Scholarship, given through the college. He also blurbed my first book, which began as my thesis 'script.