A conversation with Jean-Pierre Restif

PART ONE

JM: Why did you choose me as your translator. Frankly, my French is not that good.

JPR: ... Yes, but your American is very good. You can reproduce that Ron Padgett tone I am looking for. Only Ron Padgett could translate me better! In fact, your translation comes closer than my "original" to that ideal of "imperfection" I am seeking. That awkward interstice between stiffness and stupidity.

JM: Maybe you can explain your idea of "stupidity" in poetry. As in your line "Il faut payer la taxe de la bêtise..."

JPR: Yes, I view it as a sort of tribute or tax that one must pay.

JM: Irony? Playing the fool?

JPR: Of a sort. One must be very intelligent to pull this off successfully. I did it well in "A Dog Named Illiinois," but "Traduit au Américain" came out badly.

JM: What didn't work in that poem? It was a devil to translate.

JPR: It's not your fault, I assure you. You asked me write a bad poem, but what came out was simply bad. It lacked that lightness of touch. It was heavy, leaden, especially at the end. I ended it in disgust with myself.

JM: Maybe I was pushing you too far in that direction. Protestantism is very dull, both to the French, because it evokes nothing mysterious, and to us, because it is too familiar.

JPR: Yes, I am much more interested in your American Jewish poetry, Shapiro, Warsh, Lopate, Koch. Is Ron Padgett Jewish or Protestant, or maybe Catholic? His father was a bootlegger, no?

JM: We will have to investigate that in the second half of our conversation.