devi: (Default)
devi ([personal profile] devi) wrote2005-10-03 10:56 pm
Entry tags:

This song will never come to an end

(or, a crash course in modern Mongolian poetry)

Before I go on, thank you all for telling me about your sibling-relationships. I'll be posting more about Mongolia soon, but for now...

I found this wonderful thing at Buyant-Ukhaa airport in Ulan Bator, just before getting on the plane, in a souvenir shop otherwise full of tat. It’s fascinating.





It was published in 1985, when communism was still in force, and there’s a lot of terrible poems about the greatness of Lenin and the glory of the October Revolution in it. The foreword also declares that the modern poetry movement in Mongolia began with two Communist revolutionary songs written in the 1920s. I take this claim with a large sack of salt. But many of the non-political ones are quite beautiful. (There seems to be an inverse correspondence between whether they’re about Communism and whether they’re any cop.) The translation is a bit clunky, it’s full of typos and I can’t see through the haze of my infatuation with Mongolia if the poetry is actually any good or not, but I’m charmed by it anyway.

Look inside...

(I didn't manage to write down the authors' names before posting the book back to Ireland in a large box of souvenirs. I'll add them later. And ignore the last picture, its purpose will become clear in the fullness of time.)

[identity profile] verlaine.livejournal.com 2005-10-03 03:16 pm (UTC)(link)
Those are rather good. I can't "The Foal of Khulan Won't Come By Itself For You To Ride" would make a better opening line for a Magnetic Fields or a White Stripes song...

[identity profile] bluedevi.livejournal.com 2005-10-03 04:22 pm (UTC)(link)
The book also has the full text of a Mongolian opera, a fabulous crazy thing ending with a pile of corpses, which I *have* to show to you...

How's the party planning going?

[identity profile] huskyteer.livejournal.com 2005-10-03 03:21 pm (UTC)(link)
Ooh, those are nice!
(deleted comment)

[identity profile] bluedevi.livejournal.com 2005-10-03 04:19 pm (UTC)(link)
Isn't it? I might put a link to the picture in my userinfo.

[identity profile] parallelgirl.livejournal.com 2005-10-03 03:46 pm (UTC)(link)
I really like those!

[identity profile] undyingking.livejournal.com 2005-10-03 03:58 pm (UTC)(link)
Like the icon! (GIC)

[identity profile] bluedevi.livejournal.com 2005-10-03 04:20 pm (UTC)(link)
I was going to just post 'Gap GIP!' but then I thought I'd give you some poetry as well.

[identity profile] xxxlibris.livejournal.com 2005-10-03 04:23 pm (UTC)(link)
Sod the "My lovely horse" poetry - the front cover is amazing! Very "Grant Morrison does small press publishing".

[identity profile] bluedevi.livejournal.com 2005-10-03 05:05 pm (UTC)(link)
It is kind of unnerving, I think. And those are among the least My-Lovely-Horseish of the lot. There's one about a horse who is a Communist hero. I should have put that in, now I think about it.

[identity profile] xxxlibris.livejournal.com 2005-10-03 05:46 pm (UTC)(link)
My lovely Communist hero horse! Yes, you should have.

[identity profile] mooism.livejournal.com 2005-10-04 09:01 am (UTC)(link)
Ah, copyright violation. I’m sure any genuine communists would approve.