MONDAY MORNING - FATHER'S DAY POETRY AND MISCELLANEOUS MUSINGS

By Debbie Bulloch



Well, another Father’s Day has come and gone. It is now time to get back to more mundane pursuits, such as work, bike riding, writing, photography – and yes continuing to be both Mom and Dad to my college-bound child.

I wish to thank SanPaul Held for publishing the Sunday Comic. Mil gracias chico! I also wish to thank Arcabulle Odriscoll for his wonderful article and the beautiful photographs that he published.

Especially nice was the poem “Pour toi Papa” (“For you Dad”). Like with Arc’s previous poem, I have attempted to translate his poem from French to English. Translations are very difficult to do. Poetry, where every word is carefully chosen by the poet for its sound and “weight,” is even more difficult to translate. The translator usually attempts to capture the soul of the poem, and not do a literal word by word translation.

I am fluent in English and Spanish. I have read poetry written in English and translated to Spanish (Shakespeare’s sonnets come to mind here); I have also read poetry originally written in Spanish and translated to English. Even the best translators often fall short of the mark – it is hard to translate the “flavor” of words written in a foreign language.

I am not fluent in French – not by a long shot. But with Arc’s French lessons, my own knowledge of Spanish, the Latin that I learned in high school and a good English to French dictionary, I have tried my hand at translating Arc’s poem “Pour toi Papa.”

I apologize if the translation falls short of the mark. I ask that Arc read the English version and make any necessary corrections.

Finally, one of the presents that I received for Father’s Day (yes, I do get presents for Father’s Day) was my own copy of Photo Shop Elements 7. For years I had been using Elements 2 so my daughter thought it was time for me to finally come out of the PhotoShop Dark Ages.

After installing the program (which was surprisingly simple) I went out to my garden and snapped a few photographs of my roses. Then I came in, and began to experiment with Elements 7. Here are some of the results...hope you enjoy them.

Thank you for reading and thank you for looking. Enjoy!

Pour toi Papa

Papa,
Tu m'as donné la vie
Tu m'as permis de devenir qui je suis aujourd'hui
Et de me livrer l'esprit dont je jouis

Papa je te remercie pour tout ce que tu m'as apporté
Je te remercie parce que tu m'as porté
tel un voilier naviguant dans l'immensité
tu m'as bercé et accompagné au gré des années
tel un berger menant son troupeau .

Papa tu m'as guidé et montré le chemin
dans les méandres de la vie
même si le chemin était parfois tumultueux,
ton soutien et ta présence me furent d'un grand secours

Papa, je ne sais combien te remercier
pour tout ce que tu m'as apporté
parfois je regrette de ne pas être plus près de toi
pour te rendre cet amour que j'ai pour toi

La distance quelle qu'elle soit n'existe pas entre nous
car même si tu es loin de moi papa
tu es toujours avec moi
tu es dans mon coeur et dans mon esprit à chaque instant

Merci mille fois papa
Tu es là pour moi
et sache que je serai toujours là pour toi

Papa Je t'aime

For you Dad,

Dad,
You have given me life
You have allowed me to become what I am today
And you have given me the soul that I have.

Dad I thank you for all that you have given me
I thank you because you have carried me
Like a sailing ship sailing in the vastness
You have cradled me and accompanied me through the years
Like a shepherd carrying his herd.

Dad you have guided me and showed me the way
Through the turns of life
Even when the way was sometimes very tumultuous
Your support and your presence were a great help to me.

Dad, I do not know how to thank you
For all that you have given me
I regret not being closer to you
To return the love that I feel for you.

Distance does not exist between us
Because even if you are far from me Dad
You are always with me; you are in my heart and in my spirit

Thank you a thousand times Dad
You are there for me and you know that I will always be there for you

Dad I love you

Roses...