Andreas Divus, Ezra Pound and the Fate of Elpenor
Andreas Divus, Ezra Pound and the Fate of Elpenor

Summary/Abstract: The reception of Greek myths in world literature is closely connected with translations and adaptations. They can pave the way to other translations as well as inspire later poets to write more original poems. Taken together, the myths as known from their ancient sources, the translations and adaptations as well as later poems based on myths constitute an immense network of texts. As I will show in this essay, even a dull and forgotten translation can give new ideas to later poets. I will start with a book entitled Kanapea, which is certainly one of the most peculiar among the collections of poetry which have been published in Finland in the first years of the third millennium. The collection, the subtitle of which is “Börje Oinaan runot”, “The poems of Börje Oinas”, was published in 2001 by Henri Broms (b. 1928) and Matti Liinamaa (b. 1928), as was indicated on the title page. The relations between Börje Oinas, B.O., who has signed the introduction “Börje Oinas – Preludi” (“Börje Oinas – A Prelude”), and the actual authors is at least as complicated as the relations between E.P., Ezra Pound and the title person in Pound’s Hugh Selwyn Mauberley.

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