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World Poetry Translation Project


Submit Human Translation | Discuss Poem | Post Poetry | Listen McGill Live

Rogue Elephant
by A.R. Ammons

The reason to be autonomous is to stand there,
a cleared instrument, ready to act, to search

the moral realm and actual conditions for what
needs to be done and to do it: fine, the

best, if it works out, but if, like a gun, it
comes in handy to the wrong choice, why then

you see the danger in the effective: better
then an autonomy that stands and looks about,

negotiating nothing, the supreme indifferences:
is anything to be gained where as much is lost:

and if for every action there is an equal and
opposite reaction has the loss been researched

equally with the gain: you can see how the
milling actions of millions could come to a

buzzard-like glide as from a coincidental,
warm bottom of water stuck between chilled

peaks: it is not so easy to say, OK, go on
out and act: who, doing what, to what or

whom: just a minute: should the bunker be
bombed (if it stores gas): should all the

rattlers die just because they rattle: if I
hear the young gentleman vomiter roaring down

the hall in the men's room, should I go and
inquire of him, reducing him to my care: no

wonder the great sayers (who say nothing) sit
about in inaccessible states of mind: no

wonder still wisdom and catatonia appear to
exchange places occasionally: but if anything

were easy, our easy choices soon would carry
away our ignorance with the world-better

let the mixed-up mix and let the surface shine
with all the possibilities, each in itself.

American Review | www.PaperLyon.com | McGill Live Radio | Publish
 

  Translations for this Poem
 English  Spanish  French  German
 Italian  Portuguese  Korean  Russian
 Chinese  Japanese    
 

  Poems by A.R. Ammons
  1. An Improvisation For Angular Momentum
  2. Called Into Play
  3. Design
  4. Eyesight
  5. Gravelly Run
  6. Hymn
  7. Identity
  8. In Memoriam Mae Noblitt
  9. Poetics
  10. Rapids
  11. Rivulose
  12. Rogue Elephant
  13. Shit List Or Omnium-gatherum Of Diversit
  14. Small Song
  15. Still
  16. Their Sex Life
  17. The City Limits
 
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPRSTVWY[ALL] 
  A.E. Housman 
  A.R. Ammons 
  A.S.J. Tessimond 
  Abraham Cowley 
  Adam Zagajewski 
  Adrienne Rich 
  Ai 
  Alan Dugan 
  Alan Seeger 
  Alden Nowlan 
  Alexander Pope 
  Alfred Lord Tennyson 
  Alfred Noyes 
  Algernon Swinburne 
  Alice Duer Miller 
  Alice Walker 
  Allen Ginsberg 
  Amy Clampitt 
  Amy Lowell 
  Andrew Marvell 
  Andrew Paterson 
  Anna Akhmatova 
  Anne Bradstreet 
  Anne Carson 
  Anne Sexton 
  Annie Dillard 
  Anthony Hecht 
  Antonio Machado 
  Archibald MacLeish 
  Arthur Hugh Clough 
  Audre Lorde 
  Austin Clarke 
 

Volunteers needed to translate poetry into different languages. Please help us correct the translation of these poems. We currently have 79,663 translations and are trying to create the largest and most accurate database of world poetry translations. We have started with machine translations which are very inaccurate. Please translate your favorite poem on this site. You will be given credit for your translation and a link to your site if desired. COPYRIGHT NOTICE: These poems have been gathered and submitted by many of people, and from many sources. Most have no copyright. However, some may may have copyrights. We have tried to collect poems that appear on many external sites where the author seems to want to disseminate. If you are an author and do not want your poetry translated into other languages then send a removal request and it will be promptly removed.
 



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