Robert Bly: Three Kinds of Pleasures

Robert Elwood Bly is one of America's most celebrated poets, easily the most controversial, who has for over a half century crisscrossed the cultural landscape through poetry, translation, activism and social commentary.

He wrote poetry against the Vietnam War, spoke of injustice and offered perspectives on manhood, love and death. His legacy remains to be written. The psychologist Robert Moore believes that "When the cultural and intellectual history of our time is written, Robert Bly will be recognized as the catalyst for a sweeping cultural revolution."

Bly is an American treasure because his artistry is a multidimensional weave placed onto a midwestern canvass for all time. His genius was to display the universal themes of life and death inside the prism of American social, historical and cultural experiences. His honesty and genuiness, boundless and refreshing, places him among the true American greats. His work is a valuable link to Walt Whitman, Robert Frost, Ezra Pound and Wallace Stevens to name a few.

Robert Bly was an American Midwesterner whose first work "Silence in the Snowy Fields" evokes the earthy simplicity of a Minnesota not so long ago. Yet the style and essence takes the reader back to a simple time when the elements and dimensions speak to the universal soul. Bly was a master of reinvention, reexamination and adaption. This can be seen looking at his first free form book and his last collection called "Morning Prayers". His social activism against the Vietnam War and his pioneering work in the mythopoetic men's movement with "Iron John: A Book About Men" showed Bly to be as revolutionary as he was controversial.

He was also a translator whose works include translating Nobel Prize-winning Swedish poet Tomas Tranströmer, as well as Spanish and Mideastern poets. His intent was to share poetry and find oneself in reflection. For me, this pilgrimmage to a deeper understanding of my own past led me to Bly. I spent the last two years translating this volume as a dedication to our American poet Robert Bly. As a midwesterner, there are many meanings that Bly records that only a poet familiar with the region can truly understand. Translating Robert Bly took me back to the fields of Ohio, Michigan and the Great Lakes in the seasons of the year. The vividness of a midwestern farm and a silent snowy field made the journey a sweet remembrance. Bly's world of trains, solitude, awakenings and days and nights are filled with wonder and are a solace to any reader wanting to experience the past in a special region in America.

As a Midwesterner and poet who shared many of Bly's passions and background, my intent was to share Bly's work with a wider audience and perform a translation of his first work. Translating Robert Bly into German has led me to a deeper understanding of my own immigrant family in the midwest and Germany, the Zeitgeist of the American midwest and the uniqueness of the life and history. It was this essence in the American experience that I wanted to share in German much like Robert Bly did in his translations of so many other poets for the general benefit of everyone.

Bly did not wish to create a personal mythology, rather he strove to describe American life through powerful metaphors and intense imagery. In this and so much more he succeeded, creating new forms and crossing many currents.

News of his poor health led me to offer this effort for him. If our German friends read it and gather some inspiration about our American land, I'm sure Robert Bly would smile.

The words belong to Robert Bly, the mistakes are mine.