Marjorie Welish is not just a poet. Most of her work is
actually focused on art in a broader sense – as a painter, art critic and
historian. Visiting her website I was actually struggling to find any reference
to her earlier poetic work at all – and yet the links to the poetry community
are showing subtly, not least in the use of Welish’s paintings on the cover of a
number of Poetics Journal reprints
edited by Lyn Hejinian.
Paul Hoover included 5 of her poems in the anthology,
highlighting their meditative character, rhetorical detachment and imagistic
complexity. He noted:
“Welish’s poetry avoids conclusiveness and the grand gesture; instead it delights in ambiguity and theoretical difficulty, and finds lyricism there.”
I have to say, I find her poetic work very powerful and I
sincerely love her ambiguity. You can find some of her poems online at the EPC.
For my response I tried to focus on the peculiar mixture of
ambiguity and meditation. I drew on the philosophical writings of John Rawls –
more specifically on the first few sentences of his ground-breaking Theory of Justice. I subjected the
original text to a procedure of translation, using online translation tools to
translate the text back and forth between English, Russian, Korean, Chinese and
Arabic. I was curious to see how the text’s meaning would shift and open up for
ambiguity in the process and how different version of the text would interact
with the original words by Rawls. The outcome is a political piece (as so often
with me), but also a piece concerned with ambiguity and the manifestation of abstract
thought in words.
Within this book, called Justice
one
the role of justice
the role of the judiciary the
role of the just judicial role that is
truth such as dignity social services
system that is justice is the first virtue of social institutions as truth is system the ministry of justice the ministry of truth such as dignity social services system truth such as dignity is the system justice is the first virtue justice is as is dignity the first is the first virtue is dignity justice is the virtue just is the first is of social institutions as truth is of systems of thought
two
if you are not real
such economic theories such as truth as justice is but you need to modify you need to reject or grace and economy grace and economic theory but
grace and economy must be rejected or
modified if it's not real if it’s not real economic theory must be rejected must be first modified but
grace and economy such as rejected or
modified if it's not real a theory however elegant a theory however a theory however grace and economy and modified a theory however an elegant theory a theory however elegant and economical
must be rejected or revised if it is
untrue a theory however social
services system a theory however must
be elegant and justice must be the
first virtue must be grace and economy must be dignity a theory however elegant must be if you are not real you need to reject dignity however elegant
three
in addition the
legal and institutional mechanisms are effective and are accurate likewise laws and institutions to be honest regardless laws and institutions regardless of how efficient regardless of how precise arrangements
should to be honest regardless of the honest regardless of revised or abolished mechanisms similarly
as dignity should be reformed
or abolished if fair similarly to be honest must be reformed or
abolished must be abolished must be precise to be honest regardless of how similarly must be regardless the effective and precise mechanisms should be reformed should be abolished to be honest if fair
likewise no matter if they are unjust regardless of how efficient and
precise to be honest well-arranged must be reformed or abolished
if they are unjust similarly
unjust must be laws and
institutions similarly unjust to be honest must be grace and economy must be revised regardless of the honest should be abolished if they are unjust
four
each is full each person possesses each one built in social justice even if sanctity of public welfare even if as a whole cannot override each is full each person inviolable each person possess even if sanity each possess an inviolability founded on
justice that even the welfare of society as a whole cannot override each is full inviolable everyone has a built in community justice
even if sanctity of social welfare as a whole cannot override even if the sanctity even the public welfare founded on justice each is full each is a person cannot ignore the dignity
of public the dignity of public
welfare even if built on social justice
cannot override as a whole each
person possesses each person is
full each built in social
justice the dignity the grace and economy each is full in the first virtue in the system the welfare of the inviolability of each in every grace
five
and justice for this reason justice
for the loss of freedom denies
for this reason justice right by a greater good grace and economy for
this reason justice denies that the loss of freedom for some the freedom is made right by the greater good shared by
others for this reason for this justice in dignity
the freedom of losing some major
benefits is corrected one being shared
the justice by others for this reason denies freedom to lose several
important advantages is the right shared
is the several important advantages to lose freedom justice denies for this reason shared by
others on the right
six
it does not
allow grace and economy the first virtue and dignity the sacrifices it does not allow that few are outweighed by the large sum of
many it does not allow offset
sacrifices you will not be able to
compensate you sacrifice a lot to
enjoy advantages of the minority imposed will not be able to compensate it does not allow that the sacrifices
imposed on a few are outweighed it
does not allow to be outweighed by the larger sum of advantages enjoyed by
many it does not allow that the
sacrifices you will not be able to compensate it will not allow to enjoy advantages the offset of sacrifice imposed on
minorities an advantage enjoyed by many large amount
seven
thus in a just
society therefore in a just society
of liberties in the equal in the citizens freedoms therefore in a just society the liberties
of equal citizenship in the society of
citizens’ freedoms from a position comparable
to civil liberties in a just
society equal citizenship are taken as
settled on an equal footing is
resolved on an equal footing will be solved thus from a position comparable to civil
liberties will be resolved in a fair
society
eight
judicial
protection the right secured by
justice are not subject the rights of
non-compromising political or social interests of stones the rights secured by justice are not
subject they are not subject to
political bargaining or to the calculus of social interest to the right calculus or social interests
of stones judicial protection of the
rights of the uncompromising political and social interest of stones understanding the political and social relations the settlement of a stone the throw of a stone of the right of
judicial protection by justice are not
subject to bargaining or the calculus of stones
nine
let us only
tolerate theory the only thing that
permits us allow us an error allowed
the only thing theory there is no
better one there is no better one let us allow only theories the only thing that permits us to acquiesce
in an erroneous theory is the lack of a better one the only thing theory is no better allow us an error the only thing theory there is no better one
ten
it’s even
more in order to prevent
irregularities only when it is
required again analogously an injustice is tolerable only when it is
necessary to avoid an even greater injustice
similarly the silence similarly only when it is necessary in order to avoid further injustice the silence on injustices only when it is
necessary in order to avoid further
analogously it’s even more in
order to prevent irregularities on when
it is required again negative
silence even greater injustice similarly silence injustices when it is necessary only in order to
avoid similarly
eleven
human
activities truth and justice is the first virtue is relentless is the first virtue in truth
human activity is in truth and
justice is the first virtue is brutal
human truth and justice is the
first virtue is human relentlessly human activity being first being first relentless human activity is brutal
in truth and justice is human activity being first virtues of human activity being human being in truth and brutally truth and justice is the first virtue is relentless being first virtues of human activities
truth and justice are uncompromising
that is true
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