Full Description
A Belgian pagoda and a red Hungarian hedgehog; 12-year-old Hector Berlioz falls in love; a French tribute to Edgar (Allan) Poe; lakes in Germany and Italy, rivers in Switzerland; home thoughts from the Mediterranean; the bloody end of bonny Kate; the painters El Greco and Csontvary; variations on Dostoyevsky, Turgenev and Chekhov; Catullus celebrates erotic marriage; with much more. Tom Hubbard takes us on another poetic tour of Europe, offering a number of translations (or rather transcreations) on the way. Parapets and Labyrinths, a collection of poems mainly in English (but with a significant presence of the Scots language - glossary included), is a companion volume to The Chagall Winnocks, which was published by Grace Note Publications in 2011.
The poet wears his learning lightly, more of a cultivated 'flaneur' than a stuffy academic - If there is anything labyrinthine about these poems, it is because the poet is no mere aficionado of the 'grand tour', but sharply observant, knowing there is nothing straightforward about Europe and its outlying archipelago of the British Isles, Ireland and Iceland - Darkness may be latent in many of the poems, but - the pleasure principle trumps everything else in the poetry of Tom Hubbard. NOTES FROM MARIO RELICH
Contents
CONTENTS Preface by Mario Relich 01 Introduction: Spaces 04 Scotland Prologue 11 The Retour o Troilus 13 Belgium European Capital 16 France Berlioz at Meylan 21 Edgar Poe 27 Spain El Greco Townscape 30 Italy Pompeii 32 Paolo to Francesca 36 Catullus LXI 38 La madre dei laghi 40 Germany Speirins 44 Laachersee Elegy 47 Schellbronn 50 Switzerland The Terrace at Basel 52 An Antiquarian Print 56 Frae Vocatioun o the Rivers 58 Austria Music at Kufstein 60 Iceberg 63 Poland Candles 66 Hungary Himnusz (1823) 70 Red Hedgehog 74 Hame Thochts, frae the Med 76 Birthplace 77 The Painter Tivadar Csontvary 79 Ukraine Bonny Kate 82 Russia Variation russe sur un theme 00 folklorique americain 86 The Permitted and the Possible 88 Chekhoviana 90 Epilogue: The Tint Threid / The Lost Thread 92 GLOSSARY 95 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 107 BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTES 109 ABOUT THE AUTHOR 115
