James Merrill's childhood home (http://www.missouri.edu/~engtim/jm_forum/brokenhome.html) was a 50-room mansion called "The Orchard," located in Southampton, New York

"Lost in Translation" is a poem by James Merrill, originally published in The New Yorker magazine on April 8, 1974. It appeared in book form for the first time in 1976 in Divine Comedies. (Divine Comedies was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1977.) The Hamptons © 2004 Matthew Trump File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... Southampton, New York is the name of three entities on Long Island in Suffolk County, New York in the United States. ... Poetry (ancient Greek: poieo = create) is an art form in which human language is used for its aesthetic qualities in addition to, or instead of, its notional and semantic content. ... poet James Merrill, age 30, in a 1957 publicity photograph for The Seraglio James Ingram Merrill (March 3, 1926 - February 6, 1995) was a Pulitzer Prize winning American writer, increasingly regarded as one of the most important 20th century poets in the English language. ... The New Yorkers first cover, which is reprinted each year on the magazines anniversary. ... April 8 is the 98th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (99th in leap years). ... 1974 is a common year starting on Tuesday (click on link for calendar). ... 1976 is a leap year starting on Thursday (link will take you to calendar). ... Published in 1976, Divine Comedies is the seventh book of poetry by James Merrill (1926-1995). ... The Pulitzer Prize for Poetry has been presented since 1922 for a distinguished volume of original verse by an American author. ... For the album by Ash, see 1977 (album). ...

The poem opens with a description of a summer Merrill spent as a child in a great house in The Hamptons, with his governess, waiting patiently for a rented wooden jigsaw puzzle to arrive in the mail from an Upper East Side Manhattan puzzle rental shop. The Hamptons, shown highlighted The Hamptons refers to a number of places near the East End of Long Island, in Suffolk County, New York. ... A governess is a female employee from outside of the family who teaches children within the family circle. ... A jigsaw puzzle is a tiling puzzle that requires the assembly of numerous small, oddly shaped interlocking pieces. ... The Upper East Side is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, that lies between Central Park and the East River. ... Manhattan is an island bordering the lower Hudson River. ...

The most studied and celebrated of James Merrill's shorter works of poetry, "Lost in Translation" has been widely praised by literary critics including Harold Bloom. Harold Bloom (born July 11, 1930) is an American literary critic, known as a defender of the 19th-century Romantic poets at a time when their reputations were at a low ebb, the author of a controversial theory of poetic influence, and more recently as the advocate of an aesthetic...

Background to the poem

poet James Merrill at age 30

Merrill wrote in his lifetime mainly for a select group of friends, fans, and critics, and expected readers of "Lost in Translation" to have some knowledge of his biography. Born in New York City, Merrill was the son of the founder of the world's largest brokerage firm. He enjoyed a privileged upbringing in economic and cultural terms, although as a child his intelligence and exceptional financial circumstances often made him feel lonely. Merrill was the only child of Charles E. Merrill and Hellen Ingram. (Merrill had two older half siblings from his father's first marriage.) This image is a book cover. ... poet James Merrill, age 30, in a 1957 publicity photograph for The Seraglio James Ingram Merrill (March 3, 1926 - February 6, 1995) was a Pulitzer Prize winning American writer, increasingly regarded as one of the most important 20th century poets in the English language. ... Midtown Manhattan, looking north from the Empire State Building, 2005 New York City (officially named the City of New York) is the most populous city in the state of New York and the entire United States. ... Merrill Lynch & Co. ... Charles E. Merrill, (October 19, 1885 _ 1956) was a philanthropist, stockbroker and one of the founders of Merrill, Lynch & Company. ... Born in Jacksonville, Florida, Hellen Ingram became Hellen Ingram Merrill upon her marriage to Merrill Lynch founder Charles E. Merrill (1885-1956). ...

Given that his parents were often preoccupied, his father with business, his mother with social obligations, Merrill developed a number of close relationships with household staff. "Lost in Translation" describes a profound childhood bond with the woman who taught him French and German. Merrill's parents would divorce in 1939, when Merrill was thirteen years old, in a scandal that was front page news on the New York Times. Historically, the term business referred to activities or interests. ... A socialite is a person (often a younger woman) of social prominence, considered to be an influential social figure. ... Divorce or dissolution of marriage is the ending of a marriage, which can be contrasted with an annulment which is a declaration that a marriage is void, though the effects of marriage may be recognized in such unions, such as spousal support, child custody and distribution of property. ... The New York Times is an internationally known daily newspaper published in New York City and distributed in the United States and many other nations worldwide. ...

Technical description

"Lost in Translation" appeared in book form in Divine Comedies in 1976, which was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1977.

Not only is "Lost in Translation" a poem about a child putting together a jigsaw puzzle, it is an interpretive puzzle, designed to engage a reader's interest in solving mysteries at various narrative levels. This image has been released into the public domain by the copyright holder. ... This image has been released into the public domain by the copyright holder. ... Published in 1976, Divine Comedies is the seventh book of poetry by James Merrill (1926-1995). ... See also: 1975 in literature, other events of 1976, 1977 in literature, list of years in literature. ... The Pulitzer Prize for Poetry has been presented since 1922 for a distinguished volume of original verse by an American author. ... See also: 1976 in literature, other events of 1977, 1978 in literature, list of years in literature. ...

The poem is dedicated to Merrill's friend, the distinguished poet, critic, and translator Richard Howard. It consists of 215 lines with an additional four line epigraph. The poem is mainly in unrhymed pentameter but includes a section in Rubaiyat quatrain stanzas. "Lost in Translation" may be classified as an autobiographical narrative or narrative poem, but is better understood as a series of embedded narratives (stories within a story). Richard Howard is a distinguished American poet, literary critic, essayist, teacher, and translator. ... In literature, an epigraph is a quotation that is placed at the start of a work or section that expresses in some succinct way an aspect or theme of what is to follow. ... In poetry, a pentameter is a line of verse consisting of five metrical feet: Be what you can if thus your heart so deem, For more the man will less the foible seem. ... Rubaiyat is a common shorthand name for the collection of Persian verses known more formally as the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. ... A quatrain is a poem or a stanza within a poem that consists of four lines. ... In poetry, a stanza is a unit within a larger poem. ... For music albums named Autobiography, see Greek eauton = self, bios = life and graphein = write) is a form of biography, the writing of a life story. ... Narrative is a term which has several and changing meanings. ... A narrative poem is an extended poem which tells a story. ... A story within a story is a literary device or conceit in which one story is told during the action of another story. ...

A mysterious epigraph in German

Unusually for Merrill, the poem bears a mysterious four-line epigraph in German, which is printed without translation or attribution: In literature, an epigraph is a quotation that is placed at the start of a work or section that expresses in some succinct way an aspect or theme of what is to follow. ... Translation is an activity comprising the interpretation of the meaning of a text in one language—the called the source text—and the production of a new, equivalent text in another language—called the target text, or the translation. ... ...

Diese Tage, die leer dir scheinen

und wertlos für das All,

haben Wurzeln zwischen den Steinen

und trinken dort überall.

In James Merrill's own English version of this epigraph (published in 1985 in Late Settings), these four lines are translated into English as follows: poet James Merrill, age 30, in a 1957 publicity photograph for The Seraglio James Ingram Merrill (March 3, 1926 - February 6, 1995) was a Pulitzer Prize winning American writer, increasingly regarded as one of the most important 20th century poets in the English language. ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... 1985 is a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Late Settings is a 1985 collection of poetry by James Merrill (1926-1995). ...

These days which, like yourself,

Seem empty and effaced

Have avid roots that delve

To work deep in the waste.

The puzzle is "no puzzle"

"Daylight shines in or lamplight down..." A vintage 1930s photograph of the ballroom in James Merrill's childhood home. Cover illustration for The Changing Light At Sandover (1982)

The opening lines of the poem describe the library where the young Merrill took his lessons. He describes the scene as if an eight- or nine-year-old boy were seeing it: fair use of jacket cover for James Merrills The Changing Light at Sandover (1982) This image is a book cover. ... fair use of jacket cover for James Merrills The Changing Light at Sandover (1982) This image is a book cover. ... Events and trends Technology Jet engine invented Science Nuclear fission discovered by Otto Hahn, Lise Meitner and Fritz Strassmann Pluto, the ninth planet from the Sun, is discovered by Clyde Tombaugh British biologist Arthur Tansley coins term ecosystem War, peace and politics Socialists proclaim The death of Capitalism Rise to... The cover of The Changing Light at Sandover shows the ballroom of James Merrills childhood home in the 1930s The Changing Light At Sandover is a 560-page poem by James Merrill (1926-1995). ...

A card table in the library stands ready

To receive the puzzle which keeps never coming.

Daylight shines in or lamplight down

Upon the tense oasis of green felt.

Full of unfulfillment, life goes on,

Mirage arisen from time's trickling sands

Or fallen piecemeal into place:

German lesson, picnic, see-saw, walk

With the collie who "did everything but talk" —

Sour windfalls of the orchard back of us.

A summer without parents is the puzzle,

Or should be. But the boy, day after day,

Writes in his Line-a-Day No puzzle.

When the puzzle finally arrives, after days of waiting, it is described in detail:

Out of the blue, as promised, of a New York

Puzzle-rental shop the puzzle comes —

A superior one, containing a thousand hand-sawn,

Sandal-scented pieces. Many take

shapes known already — the craftsman's repertoire

nice in its limitation — from other puzzles:

Witch on broomstick, ostrich, hourglass,

Even (not surely just in retrospect)

An inchling, innocently-branching palm.

Mademoiselle

"Mademoiselle does borders...." Merrill's childhood governess was from Alsace, on the border between France and Germany.

In "Lost in Translation," the narrator's puzzle-making companion is his French governess, whom he refers to repeatedly as Mademoiselle. Part mother, part teacher, part nanny, part servant, she is described by Merrill as "stout, plain, carrot-haired, devout." Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... Capital Strasbourg Area 8,280 km² Regional President Adrien Zeller Population  - 2004 estimate  - 1999 census  - Density 1,793,000 1,734,145 209/km² Arrondissements 13 Cantons 75 Communes 903 Départements Bas-Rhin Haut-Rhin Alsace (French: Alsace; Alsatian/German: Elsaß) is a région of France. ... A governess is a female employee from outside of the family who teaches children within the family circle. ... A nanny is defined as a childs nurse. The traditional nanny was a servant in a great household and reported directly to the lady of the house. ...

At one point in the poem, Mademoiselle speaks the same phrase in French and in German. In addition to playing with the boy's marionettes and doing jigsaw puzzles with him, Mademoiselle is teaching the young James Merrill languages which would be critical to making him the sophisticated and urbane lyric poet of later life. By giving name, in several languages, to objects and tasks around the home, Mademoiselle helps the young James Merrill come to understand a doubleness about language itself, that objects and activities can have different names and connotations across languages. Marionette in Prague A marionette is a type of puppet moved by strings, as in a puppet show. ...

From the child's point of view, the "puzzle" goes well beyond what is taking place on the card table. Merrill is puzzling through the mystery of his existence, puzzling through the mystery of what the world is, what objects are, what people do in life. An unspoken puzzle is solved when the young Merrill determines what his relationship to Mademoiselle is, given the frequent absence of his own mother. Mademoiselle knows "her place," he writes, indicating his first consciousness of his own class privilege, as well as (perhaps) the limits placed on Mademoiselle's maternal role. ashley is gay Mother with her child (Sculpture) A mother is typically the biological or social female parent of a child or offspring while the male parent is the father. ...

Yet other puzzles are not solved until later in life. At one point the narrator's voice modulates into that of an adult. We find out that Mademoiselle hid her true origins from the boy (and from his family) because of the political tensions leading up to 1939 and to the outbreak of World War II. Mademoiselle claimed to be French herself, but in fact hid her German or Alsatian birth. She presumably gained a French surname only through marriage to a soldier who died in the Battle of Verdun in World War I (1914-1918). Mademoiselle could let no one know she was German for fear of losing her job and her employers' trust. This explains the fact that Merrill's own French, learned in imitation of his governess, was always spoken with a slight German accent. The boy finds out the full truth only as an adult, after a chance conversation with Mademoiselle's grown nephew, a United Nations interpreter, who tells him the story of the governess's true origins. Mushroom cloud from the nuclear explosion over Nagasaki rising 18 km into the air. ... Capital Strasbourg Area 8,280 km² Regional President Adrien Zeller Population  - 2004 estimate  - 1999 census  - Density 1,793,000 1,734,145 209/km² Arrondissements 13 Cantons 75 Communes 903 Départements Bas-Rhin Haut-Rhin Alsace (French: Alsace; Alsatian/German: Elsaß) is a région of France. ... A family name, or surname, is that part of a persons name that indicates to what family he or she belongs. ... Battle of Verdun Conflict World War I Date 21 February 1916 – 19 December 1916 Place Verdun, France Result Stalemate They shall not pass — Robert Nivelle The Battle of Verdun was a major battle of the Western Front in World War I. The battle was fought between the German and French... Missing image Ypres, 1917, in the vicinity of the Battle of Passchendaele. ... The United Nations, or UN, is an international organization established in 1945 and now made up of 191 states. ... Interpreter can mean one of the following: In communication, an interpreter is a person whose role is to facilitate dialogue between two parties that do not use the same language. ...

The poem includes several other secondary narratives, including a section in which the puzzle itself is put together. Inspired by Omar Khayyam's Rubaiyat quatrains, Merrill describes an imaginary harem-like 19th century Orientalist painting, by an alleged follower of Jean-Léon Gérôme, that begins to appear as the puzzle pieces are put together. When the puzzle is nearly done, the piece that was missing the whole time is found under the table at the boy's feet. The missing piece is, in fact, an image of the boy's feet. When it is put in place, the portrait of the little boy in the puzzle is finally complete. Tomb of Omar Khayam, Neishapur, Iran. ... Rubaiyat is a common shorthand name for the collection of Persian verses known more formally as the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. ... In traditional Arab culture, the harîm حريم is the part of the household forbidden to male strangers. ... Orientalism is the study of Near and Far Eastern societies and cultures, by Westerners. ... Jean-Léon Gérôme ( May 11, 1824 - 1904) was a French painter and sculptor who produced many works in a historical, Orientalist style. ...

A puzzle within a puzzle...

"This grown man reenters, wearing grey..."

At the center of the poem is a mysterious sequence in which the poet, attending a present-day séance, describes a medium who is able to divine that a piece of a wooden jigsaw puzzle has been concealed inside a box. Modershon-Beckers famous portrait of Rilke. ... Modershon-Beckers famous portrait of Rilke. ... A séance (SAY-ahnce) is, on its most basic level, an attempt to communicate with the dead. ... For other meanings of medium, see medium (disambiguation). ...

To understand "Lost in Translation", the reader must work out and solve a puzzle in the narrative text, revealed by a confession Merrill the adult makes at the end of the poem. The little boy has apparently kept a piece of the jigsaw puzzle, in the shape of a palm tree, throughout his life. This fact has jogged the memory in Merrill of a poem called "Palme" by the French Symbolist poet Paul Valéry (1871-1945), and that memory in turn has reminded Merrill of a German translation he has once seen of that same poem by poet Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926). A puzzle is a problem or enigma presented as entertainment; that is written down, acted out, etc. ... Genera Many; see list of Arecaceae genera Arecaceae (also known as Palmae or Palmaceae), the palm family, is a family of flowering plants, belonging to the monocot order Arecales. ... Symbolism is the systematic or creative use of arbitrary symbols as abstracted representations of concepts or objects and the distinct relationships inbetween, as they define both context and the narrower definition of terms. ... Paul Valéry (October 30, 1871 - July 20, 1945) was a French author and poet of the Symbolist school. ... Rainer Maria Rilke (born 4 December 1875 in Prague; died 29 December 1926 in Val-Mont (Switzerland)) was an important poet in the German language. ...

The poet knows that he has seen and read the Rilke translation before, because he can picture the words on the page. "The owlet umlaut peeps and hoots/ Above the open vowel," Merrill writes, in some of the poem's most quoted lines. Yet despite remembering the experience of reading the Rilke translation, he cannot locate a copy in Athens, Greece (where Merrill and his partner David Jackson were living six months of the year), and begins to doubt whether it exists except in his imagination. The poem "Lost in Translation" assumes the form of a letter to Richard Howard seeking an actual copy of that translation. For other uses, see Athens (disambiguation). ... David Jackson (?? - July 13, 2001) was the life partner of poet James Merrill (1926-1995). ...

...Solved!

"An inchling, innocently branching palm..."

But the translation turns out not to have been lost, or a figment of the poet's imagination, for it is used to write the poem "Lost In Translation." The German epigraph at the beginning of the poem offers the key clue here. The four lines come from that "lost" German translation by Rilke of Valéry's "Palme". (Merrill's own English translation of "Palme" is the source of the translated quatrain above. See Merrill's "Paul Valéry: Palme" in Late Settings, 1985.) Download high resolution version (454x765, 178 KB)Coconut Palm on Martinique. ... Download high resolution version (454x765, 178 KB)Coconut Palm on Martinique. ... Genera Many; see list of Arecaceae genera Arecaceae (also known as Palmae or Palmaceae), the palm family, is a family of flowering plants, belonging to the monocot order Arecales. ... Late Settings is a 1985 collection of poetry by James Merrill (1926-1995). ...

The solution to the puzzle of the poem is hidden in plain sight all along. "Nothing's lost," Merrill suggests, when it comes to translating experience or memory, at least according to the way Merrill understands our human experience. The poem's coda salutes the power of the transformative imagination to recover meaning in the world from all we see and remember. Its language and phrasing offer a veiled tribute by Merrill to the poet he most admired from his father's generation, Wallace Stevens (author of "The Palm at the End of the Mind"): Wallace Stevens Wallace Stevens (October 2, 1879 - August 2, 1955) was an American Modernist poet. ...

But nothing's lost. Or else: all is translation

And every bit of us is lost in it...

And in that loss a self-effacing tree,

Color of context, imperceptibly

Rustling with its angel, turns the waste

To shade and fiber, milk and memory.

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External links

• text of the poem (http://www.poems.com/lostimer.htm)
• additional commentary on "Lost in Translation" (http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/poets/m_r/merrill/lost.htm)
• Denisa Comanescu: "Translation and her Retinue" (http://www.corpse.org/issue_14/translation/comanescu.html)
• Leon Nadel: "Replacing the Waste Land: James Merrill's Quest for Transcendent Authority" (http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/poets/m_r/merrill/nadel.htm)