My speech on receiving the Eino Leino Prize, March 24, 2015, Laulumiehet, Helsinki.
Two recent pieces on Ulysses by Joyce (and me): “‘Mutta kuka oli Gerty?’” (“‘But who was Gerty?'” On the theme of “who’s talking” in Episode 13 — and the function of stylistic variation in Ulysses in general, published in the Finnish philosophical magazine, niin&näin, 3/2012); “Ulysses ja haamut” (“Ulysses and Ghosts”, my lecture in a meeting of Finnish Translators’ and Interpretators’ Union (literary translators’ section), Oct 8, 2012, Helsinki). Both are in Finnish.
Salla Hakkola (folkharp), Tero Valkonen (floor tom), and me (voice) performed three poems by the Finnish Modernist master, Eeva-Liisa Manner (1921–1995) in a matinée dedicated to her 90th birthday: “Kirjoituskone” (Typewriter, 1966; with introductions by Tuula Hökkä and me), “Virsi hirsipuusta” (A Psalm From the Gallows, 1956), and “Kävely” (A Walk, 1966).
“Ananke. Pantun” by Hasso Krull; “Soome kommunistid Ida-Karjalas” (by Elo Viiding).
Myàspeech in âÂÂJesus versus JesusâÂÂ, a conversation between writers Antti Nylén and Janne Kortteinen, with Marko Gylén and me as moderators, Wed., Dec. 15, 2010, in Lasipalatsi, Helsinki.
My rejected editorial for the Kritiikkiportti.fi portal for literary criticism.
Text and audio for my lecture in the Annual Seminar of the Finnish Literary Research Society, June 10, 2010
Some preliminary results of my recent forays onto the border-area between “poetry” and “music”: 1) a demo of my “singing”à(mp3, 2:30) (of four stanzas of) that beloved classic of traditional Finnish poetry, “Lapin kesä” (The Summer of Lapland, from Kangastuksia, 1902; for the lyrics, in Finnish and in English transl., click here) by Eino Leino, over Chuck Berry’s orig. recording of “Rock and Roll Music”; 2) a well-known poem by the late Finnish Modernist master, Paavo Haavikko, “Kukaan ei ymmärrä minua (tässä ravintolassa)” [No One Understands Me (In This Restaurant), from Viiniä, kirjoitusta, Otava 1976] performed by me (mp3, 3:35) against the 1966 Rolling Stones classic, “Paint It, Black” in my on arrangement ; 3) my sonnet, “Vedekieltä, kai” from ÃÂäninen (Like 1997), read as accompaniment, so to say, to a small musical composition of my own (mp3, 1:21). I welcome you to listen and to be horrified – I for my part continue to be fascinated with “doing things I cannot do”, as well as with a larger perspective of “putting music into language” (instead of other way round).
Me reading “Kultaiset torvet” (mp3, 2:28, 25 MB) , a rare Finnish ghazal by Otto Manninen (1925), and “Herpaantumatonta hilseilyä” (mp3, 5:47, 59 MB), my translation into Finnish of “Besotted Desquamation” by Charles Bernstein. From ÃÂänivalta ja maan siunaus event, in Suomenlinna, Helsinki, Sept. 18, 2009. Videos by Pekka Luhta – we apologize for the less-than-excellent sound quality.
Click here for a recording of a discussion on poetry and literary criticism in Kirjakauppa Kirja bookshop, Helsinki, Nov 13, 2009. This carries on the lively debate that was triggered by an exceptionally nasty review by Jukka Petäjä in Helsingin Sanomat (the monopolistic main newspaper) on five new poetry books, three of them by my ntamo press (for a good English account of the debate by poet Matti Kilponen, click here). The panelists were Timo Harju and Tuukka Terho (two of the manhandled poets), poet Miia Toivio (poEsia), myself, Antti Majander from the HS Cultural Section, and poet Teemu Manninen as moderator.
“Witty and insightful, provocative and informative, The Sound of Poetry / The Poetry of Sound [ed. by Marjorie Perloff and Craig Dworkin, University of Chicago Books 2009] proposes nothing short of a reevaluation of the nature of poetry. In focusing on sound – such as the timbre of a poet’s voice, the noises associated with futurism, radio, and John Cage, or the challenges inherent in translation or graphic poetry – these essays explore language as living voice, and that voice (as shaped in poetry) rooted in history and place. Compelling in its alteration between personal experiences and tour de force analyses, and extraordinarily wide-ranging with perspectives from around the world, this book convinces us that poetry may be language made strange, but sound endows it with freedom and much of its power. A landmark collection rich with interdiciplinary resonances.” (John Paslet, University of California, San Diego). – The essayists are the editors, Susan Stewart, me (with this), Yante Huang, Rosmarie Waldrop, Richard Sieburth, Gordana P. CrnkoviÃÂ, Nancy Perloff, Steve McCaffery, Christian Bök, Charles Bernstein, Hélène Aji, Yoko Tawada, Susan Howe, Rubén Gallo, Antonio Sergio Bessa, Johanna Drucker, Ming-Qian Ma, Brian M. Reed, and Kenneth Goldsmith with his remarkable “I Love Speech” speech from the Presidential Forum at the Modern Language Association annual convention in 2006, where most of the stuff in the book originates.
Stuff from and for the new translation of Omar Khayyam into Finnish by Kiamars Baghbani and I (Khaijamin lauluja, ntamo 2009), including bilingual readings and the translators’ prefaces – in Finnish and Persian, my also in an English translation (and in a video of Saara Lehto dancing to the tunes of Iranian music, you can hear me “singing” Khayyam in Finnish…)
My talk (in Finnish) in the “Kivijalka” seminar organized by the Aleksis Kivi Society together with the University of Helsinki to celebrate the 175th birthday of the “Father” of the “Finnish literature”.
follows closely on Li Manping’s footsteps in this thoughtful piece recently published at Intercapillary / Space.
This essay on my poetry, in the Aug, 2009 issue (Vol. 31, No. 4) of Foreign Literary Sudies, one of China’s top academic journals in the field, by Li Manping, is also the first published review of my English book, Lake Onega and Other Poems (Salt 2006) that I know of.
Kuinka olla täydellinen by Ron Padgett, transl. by Aki Salmela; Nättiä kirjoitusta by Leena Rantanen (for children); Kakaduu! by Reetta Niemelä (for children); happi JA MUITA MINIMALISTISIA RUNOJA by Aram Saroyan, transl. by Kristian Blomberg and Harry Salmenniemi; punaisia vesikasveja lammen pinnalla mutta järistys tapahtui meren pohjassa by Hannimari Heino; filé by Jusu Annala; Sillat voitetaan kulkemalla by Karri Kokko; SLAM! 2009, ed. by Jouni Tossavainen and Leevi Lehto; Khaijamin lauluja by Omar Khayyam, transl. from Persian by Kiamars Baghbani and Leevi Lehto; Bodice Ripper Apart by Juri Nummelin; sorta vala by Teemu Helle; Kastelimme heitä runsaasti kahvilla by Timo Harju – and you better prepare for more in near future.
“A door is to find the key s’ia / And the veil is a wish to rid the eye: / A little grease here, et, en, / And then un, and dancing, and smoke.” – To read my recent new poem translated into English by Google, click here. Intrigued to find “Finnish” (in English in the original’s attribution of the translation) to “translate” as “English” here…
My new poem is a selection of quatrains by Omar Khayyám, as translated into finnish by Rushit Bilbil Gramshi and Google.
by Tuukka Terho, Jukka Tervo, and Markku Aalto. You can now buy and order these – and soon all other – ntamo books also from its new domestic printer, Kirja kerrallaan.
on new Finnish poetry, today at 6 PM, in Boksalong at the Swedish-language Radio Vega.
on my book of essays in Finnish, Alussa oli kääntäminen (Savukeidas 2008): Roo Ketvel in Parnasso, J. K. Ihalainen in Kirjo.
My piece in Finnish – on “10 books that changed my mind” – for the Finnish literary magazine, Särö.
You may start using http:/www.leevilehto.net (or just http://leevilehto.net) to access this site. The old one is not available anymore, and alas, all it’s page specific addresses (with .asp in them) will return errors, so please update your eventual links to my stuff once you have time. Also, the Google Poem Generator is unavailable for the time being – hopefully to turn up again elsewhere.
Later today, poets Tytti Heikkinen, Marko Niemi, Miia Toivio and I will take the “Tolstoy” train from Helsinki to Moscow, where, on Sunday at 4 PM, we will mount a one-and-a-half hour seminar on “Finnish-Futurist Echoes – New technologies and machinistic impulse in Finnish 2000 poetries”. This will take place in the Central House of Artists, and is part of the Finnish Literary Exchange (FILI) programming at the well-known Non/Fiction book fair (Finland being the fair’s Guest of Honour this year). Even before that, on Saturday, starting 5 pm, we will have a joint reading with Russian poets Dðnilð Dðvydþv, Dinð Gðtinð, Annð Russ, and Arkðdij Ã
¡typõlat the Bilingua Art Club (& thanks for Dmitry Kuzmin for pulling the strings on this one). We will bring along copies of a new anthology of new Finnish poetry in Russian, ÃÂþòþÃÂøàÿþóÃÂðýøÃÂýðàÃÂÃÂÃÂðýð, which I edited, and published earlier this week through my ntamo press – featuring work by Kari Aronpuro, Mikael Brygger, Tytti Heikkinen, Lassi Hyvärinen, Silja Järventausta, Jukka-Pekka Kervinen, myself, Marko Niemi, Jyrki Pellinen, and Miia Toivio, and including my 2006 “Brazil” essay, “Plurifying the Languages of the Trite” in Alexander Skidan’s Russian translation. – Fragments from Kuuskajaskari, by Jyrki Pellinen, in Arvi Perttu’s translation online here.
World Literature, a Beijing bimonthly, in its issue 3/2008, carries a sequence of my sonnets in translation into Chinese by Ziqing Zhang.
Local Colour by derek beaulieu is a pageâÂÂbyâÂÂpage interpretation of Paul AusterâÂÂs 72âÂÂpage novella Ghosts. Ghosts concerns itself with Blue, a private detective hired by a mysterious character named White to transcribe the actions of Black, a denizen of Brooklyn Heights. As Blue reports his findings, the reader becomes more aware of the intricate relationship between Black and White, and a tactile awareness of colour spreads through the narrative. With Local Colour, beaulieu has removed the entirety of AusterâÂÂs text, leaving only chromatic wordsâÂÂproper nouns or notâÂÂspread across the page as dollops of paint on a palette. What remains is the written equivalent of ambient musicâÂÂwords which are meant to be seen but not read. The colours, through repetition, build a suspense and crescendo which is loosened from traditional narrative into a more pointillist construction. beaulieuâÂÂs writing is a record of reading, a trace of absence. A writing without writing – & available as per today from ntamo.