a verse translation of a poem by Sándor Petőfi — a poem by Sándor Petõfi, written in the style of traditional Hungarian folk songs, translated by Joe Váradi Anyhow I await my wedding banquet Warily, In days it will be upon us, Hastily, One more week, not here nor there, Grind through it without fanfare, Anyhow. I’m a destitute man’s offspring, You…

a verse translation of a poem by Sándor Petőfi — Highly Esteemed Overlords (1848) Highly esteemed overlords, well How goes it? Do your necks itch, tell the truth, a Tiny bit? Neckwear of the latest trend, to Serve you right, We’ve prepared … it’s nothing chic, but Nice and tight. Do you have a sense, how long we’ve Begged of you, Show that you regard…

musical political satire — to be sung to the music of Paul Simon’s “Slip Slidin’ Away” by Joe Váradi Flip Floppin’ Away Flip floppin’ away Flip floppin’ away You know the longer the investigation The more they’re flip floppin’ away I know a man — He came from way downtown He wore a sloppy Wall Street suit but…

a linguistic audio-visual experiment — The latest generation of large language model (LLM), text-to-image and text-to-video artificial intelligence tools has captured my imagination and creative fancy. No, I’m not talking about handing the keys to the kingdom to the robots. The writing, the translation, that is still very much my own work. Though these…

grammar meets rock ‘n roll — Suburbia, U.S.A. (AP) In local news, the members of neighborhood garage band Subject + Predicate have announced a grammatical rebranding. Henceforth their band name will still be written the same way, but the emphasis will shift from the first to the last syllable of each word, and be pronounced Sub-JECT+…

seasonal shape poetry — p an dur iform, botanical term describing a particular shape, can you surmise which? it’s one of many related terms in fact, language by organic necessity growing ever more diverse and variegated as the natural world it aims to depict, primal roots sprouting novel forms and figures of expression — pandura plucked by hellenistic bards and muses resembling a g ra ce ful leaf

translation of a poem by Gizella Hervay — My first time seeing that wash basin up on that rack, chrome flaking off the dome of the sky, the rack under the wash basin spoke up in the universal language of poverty: “washed the clothes in that sad blue basin, chrome chipping off the sky, turned cloud-white, she rinses, amidst endless wails she lays out her ragged…

a tautogram poem —

a dreamy verse translation — a poem by Zsuzsa A. Túri, translated by Joe Váradi Spring Spring- Beginning Flows- Lifegiving Gentle waves and Waterfalls Splashing dreamy Sunlit walls, Stretching, hoping Raw pitfalls: Sweeping currents Present and Past, Into magic Vortices cast, Swept away fast: Your soul’s mirror Translucent, Or Tired, Ashen Every surge Tells tales of living, Every droplet Wisdom-giving, If you take your Fate in your hands, It will wash out Your riverbanks…