(Part of what's lost in the translation is the specificity of Æshnis, which is not a generic "nearest shore": it's Eshaness, a concrete place in the Shetlands. The English runs the line breaks together into sentences for no reason I can determine, which makes the poem read as more prosaic than it is. And the vagueness is recurring: "If you spit in the ocean, that drop might reach the nearest shore" is possibly intended to sound like folk wisdom, a proverb, but "You spit in the ocean / and a drop might reach Æshnis" is arresting and immediate.)
I like "Bottles" a lot.
[edit] You edited your comment in the time it took me to complete mine; I found Æshnis as well. The Sinclair reads like it should be set to music.
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That's cool! Thank you so much!
(Part of what's lost in the translation is the specificity of Æshnis, which is not a generic "nearest shore": it's Eshaness, a concrete place in the Shetlands. The English runs the line breaks together into sentences for no reason I can determine, which makes the poem read as more prosaic than it is. And the vagueness is recurring: "If you spit in the ocean, that drop might reach the nearest shore" is possibly intended to sound like folk wisdom, a proverb, but "You spit in the ocean / and a drop might reach Æshnis" is arresting and immediate.)
I like "Bottles" a lot.
[edit] You edited your comment in the time it took me to complete mine; I found Æshnis as well. The Sinclair reads like it should be set to music.