Germ #5

Poetic Research Bloc #5 — Summer 2001
ISSN 1093-6610 / $10.00 / 328 pages.
Individually silkscreened covers by Xander Morro.

                 NERVAL, VERNE, LINDBERGH

Why is it more ridiculous to have a poet follow one, than to have a dog or cat, a gazelle, lion, or any other beast? I like poets: they are quiet and serious, they know the secrets of the sea.

—Gérard de Nerval, walking his lobster in the Palais-Royal

Incertitude, ô mes délices
Vous et moi nous nous en allons
Comme s'en vont les écrevisses
A reculons, à reculons

—Apollinaire

You see, this information was a bad joke. Over here, on April Fools' Day, it's a custom to pin a fish on people... you know... only it's usually a paper one.

—Marseilles Police Inspector, The French Connection 2

AFTER FIVE WEEKS IN A BALLOON
THE GOOD SHIP CINQ
LE GERME: A JOURNAL OF RECHERCHE POETIQUE

CONTRIBUTORS

Michel Leiris, Maurice Maeterlinck & Aaron Kunin, Christophe Fiat, Rémi Giaccomotti, Georges Perec, Jean-Michel Espitallier, Philippe Beck, Jean Frémon, Christian Prigent, Pierre Alferi, Anne Portugal & Suzanne Doppelt, Pascal Poyet, Michelle Grangaud, Christophe Tarkos, Jacques Sivan, Caroline Dubois, Vannina Maestri, Jean-Jacques Viton, Eric Giraud, Sandra Moussempès, Nathalie Quintane, Emmanuel Hocquard or Juliette Valéry, Pierre Martory, Véronique Vassiliou, Edmond Jabès, Marie Borel, Liliane Giraudon, Jacques Roubaud, Claude Royet-Journoud, Eric Pesty, Peter Gizzi interviewing Keith Waldrop (Part II)

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Michel LEIRIS: from Operratics
(translation by Guy Bennett)

Maurice MAETERLINCK & Aaron KUNIN: from The Sore Throat
(a translation by Aaron Kunin of Maeterlinck's play, Pelleas et Melisande, into a vocabulary of about 200 words)

Christophe FIAT: The New World of Love
(translation by Andrew Maxwell)

Rémi GIACCOMOTTI: Portland / The Fiancees: Kurt Cobain
(translation by Macgregor Card)

Georges PEREC: Rom Pol, 1980
(translation and adaptation by Marc Lowenthal)

Jean-Michel ESPITALLIER: from Gasoil: Spoils of War
(translation by Lisa Lubasch and Olivier Brossard)

Philippe BECK: from Vault of the Disolvable Novel
(translation by Macgregor Card)

Jean FREMON: from Island of the Dead
(translation by Cole Swensen)

Christian PRIGENT: Hey There Scholars!
(translation by Andrew Maxwell)

Pierre ALFERI: Abode and Territory of the Stickleback
(translation by Brigitte Macdonald)

Anne PORTUGAL: from In the reproduction of plants and animals
in 2 equal parts — with images by Suzanne DOPPELT.
(translation by Andrew Maxwell)

Pascal POYET: Compadrio
(translation by Andrew Maxwell)

Michelle GRANGAUD: from Biographies/Poetry
(translation by Guy Bennett)

Christophe TARKOS: from The Sign = / Manifesto
(translation by Amanda Katz)

Jacques SIVAN: from Pulps
(translation by Chantal Léon & Andrew Maxwell)

Caroline DUBOIS: Talala
(translation by Cole Swensen)

Vannina MAESTRI: from The Shadow Line
(translation by Andrew Maxwell)

Jean-Jacques VITON: from Summer Travels
(translation by Macgregor Card)

Eric GIRAUD: from Cliche
(translation by Peter Gizzi)

Sandra MOUSSEMPES: Kalo / Of Ether and Rain / Untitled / The Hot Water Bowl Has Fallen / I Assure You
(translation by Kristin Prevallet)

Nathalie QUINTANE: from Shoes
(translation by Macgregor Card)

Emmanuel HOCQUARD or Juliette VALERY: from The Year of the Gudgeon
(translation by Peter Gizzi or Elizabeth Willis)

Pierre MARTORY: Would You Like to Be a Baker / After a Ball / Connivance / Wine / Biography
(translation by Alex Phillips and Paul Fattaruso)

Véronique VASSILIOU: How, in Black
(translation by Keith Waldrop)

Edmond JABES: Dread of One Single End
(translation by Rosmarie Waldrop)

Marie BOREL: from Close Quote
(translation by Keith Waldrop)

Liliane GIRAUDON: Crustaceans Are What They Eat
(translation by Guy Bennett)

Jacques ROUBAUD: That Poetry Says Nothing, I / That Poetry Says Nothing, II / What the Poem Said / That Poetry Says What It Says / Sumpn
(translation by Guy Bennett)

CONVERSATION & RECOVERIES

Claude ROYET-JOURNOUD: A Reading of Anne-Marie Albiach's État

(Note: This piece first appeared as a review one year after the publication of Albiach's ground-breaking book État (Paris: Mercure De France, 1971) in: Revista de Letras, Universidad de puerto Rico en Mayaguez, No. 13, March 1972, and was reprinted in Action Poetique, No. 74, 1978. Royet-Journoud selected excerpts from État to create a reading followed by the contents page, itself a map or an abstract of the poem. I have replaced the French with Keith Waldrop's translation of the Albiach text from the Awede edition for an American reading of the poem.—Peter Gizzi, ed.)

Eric PESTY: Letter O from Words of the Tetralogy: A Concordance of Claude Royet-Journoud's Texts, by Eric Pesty

(Note: Texts for this "English transposition" of the concordance are taken from Keith Waldrop's English translations of the tetralogy. One detail: the fourth volume has not yet been published, so I've had to cull texts from various journals and chapbooks at hand. Nevertheless, I've cited references as if all books have appeared in print.... Page numbers are estimated for book IV, and similarly for Reversal, which was published without pagination. —Eric Pesty

Keith WALDROP interviewed by Peter GIZZI, 1993-1997, Part II

Keith WALDROP: Self-Portait.(Xerography on paper)

NERVAL, VERNE, NERVAL