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| The poetic experience
is but momentary for the veil is redrawn and the mood of exaltation passes.
The poet attempts a translation of the ineffable experience into words. While
poetry is in the soul, the poem is a pale reflection of the original, an
attempt to register in words an impression which has become an image in memory.
Here, friends, I falter. Here I have my tragedy: cannot ever be satisfied
with my "registrations". There is something incommensurable in poetry, eluding
my expression in words. The poetic temper is in all of us though only a few
develop it. The poet has the gift, which fewer still have, of communicating
the experience by words of immediate power which compel the wandering mind
to respond to his appeal. It is truly difficult to translate states of soul
into words and images. The success of art is measured by the extent to which
it is able to render experiences of one dimension into terms of another. |
| Feb. 12, 2001
by Professor Gianluca Mattioli, Bologna, Italy |
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