Frank Beck
@diehoren.bsky.social
I am a writer and translator. My most recent project is 'Anneliese's House' by Lou Andreas-Salomé, which I translated with Raleigh Whitinger. The profile image is from the wallpaper in William Morris's drawing room. My website is www.diehoren.com.
What is it in sleep that I don’t want to find?
What’s in this dark room that I can’t leave behind?
Let the rain, oh the rain, let the rain fall down;
the breathing of sleepers is a sorrowful sound . . .
From 'Charm against sleeplessness'
The full poem is in Comments.
What’s in this dark room that I can’t leave behind?
Let the rain, oh the rain, let the rain fall down;
the breathing of sleepers is a sorrowful sound . . .
From 'Charm against sleeplessness'
The full poem is in Comments.
November 16, 2025 at 7:28 PM
What is it in sleep that I don’t want to find?
What’s in this dark room that I can’t leave behind?
Let the rain, oh the rain, let the rain fall down;
the breathing of sleepers is a sorrowful sound . . .
From 'Charm against sleeplessness'
The full poem is in Comments.
What’s in this dark room that I can’t leave behind?
Let the rain, oh the rain, let the rain fall down;
the breathing of sleepers is a sorrowful sound . . .
From 'Charm against sleeplessness'
The full poem is in Comments.
If you have two minutes, Leif Ove Andsnes would like to introduce you to an overlooked gem in the world's piano repertory:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2HU...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2HU...
November 16, 2025 at 4:21 PM
If you have two minutes, Leif Ove Andsnes would like to introduce you to an overlooked gem in the world's piano repertory:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2HU...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2HU...
Any thoughts on Raul Ruiz's 1999 film, based on 'Time Regained', the seventh and final volume of Proust's 'In Search of Lost Time'? (Yes, that's Emmanuelle Béart as Gilberte.)
For those who don't know it, here's the trailer:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7SD...
For those who don't know it, here's the trailer:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7SD...
November 15, 2025 at 7:14 PM
Any thoughts on Raul Ruiz's 1999 film, based on 'Time Regained', the seventh and final volume of Proust's 'In Search of Lost Time'? (Yes, that's Emmanuelle Béart as Gilberte.)
For those who don't know it, here's the trailer:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7SD...
For those who don't know it, here's the trailer:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7SD...
If you haven't liked the Proust you've seen in English so far, you might try Charlotte Mandel's translation of 'In the Shadow of Girls in Blossom' (Oxford World Classics) -- the second volume of 'In Search of Lost Time'. No English writer has captured Proust's tone and diction so well.
November 14, 2025 at 12:42 AM
If you haven't liked the Proust you've seen in English so far, you might try Charlotte Mandel's translation of 'In the Shadow of Girls in Blossom' (Oxford World Classics) -- the second volume of 'In Search of Lost Time'. No English writer has captured Proust's tone and diction so well.
'Your turning down a story doesn't make it any worse, any more than your taking it makes it better; so the effort, to please and challenge myself, remains the same.'
John Updike, in a letter to his New Yorker editor, Roger Angel
More on Updike's selected letters in Comments.
John Updike, in a letter to his New Yorker editor, Roger Angel
More on Updike's selected letters in Comments.
November 8, 2025 at 3:13 PM
'Your turning down a story doesn't make it any worse, any more than your taking it makes it better; so the effort, to please and challenge myself, remains the same.'
John Updike, in a letter to his New Yorker editor, Roger Angel
More on Updike's selected letters in Comments.
John Updike, in a letter to his New Yorker editor, Roger Angel
More on Updike's selected letters in Comments.
One of my favorite passages from Charlotte Mandel's new translation of volume two of Proust's 'In Search of Lost Time' (p. 387.) Details about the book in Comments.
November 7, 2025 at 4:28 PM
One of my favorite passages from Charlotte Mandel's new translation of volume two of Proust's 'In Search of Lost Time' (p. 387.) Details about the book in Comments.
In a new monograph from Classiques Garnier, Arthur Morisseau looks at the fictional and real composers connected with the character Vinteuil in Proust's 'In search of lost time'. Morisseau will discuss writers and their composers in Paris on November 15.
More at the link in Comments.
More at the link in Comments.
November 6, 2025 at 6:21 PM
In a new monograph from Classiques Garnier, Arthur Morisseau looks at the fictional and real composers connected with the character Vinteuil in Proust's 'In search of lost time'. Morisseau will discuss writers and their composers in Paris on November 15.
More at the link in Comments.
More at the link in Comments.
Sometimes, watching a sunset, we can feel as though we've seen those clouds many, many years ago. Sometimes they are most than passing vapors; they seem like old friends.
November 5, 2025 at 10:10 PM
Sometimes, watching a sunset, we can feel as though we've seen those clouds many, many years ago. Sometimes they are most than passing vapors; they seem like old friends.
Thought for the day, November 5, 2025:
November 5, 2025 at 4:28 PM
Thought for the day, November 5, 2025:
Paul Celan translated many of his poems from German into French for his wife Gisèle Lestrange. Two new books give us English versions of those translations, opening new perspectives on his work. I reviewed both of them for American Book Review, available from Project Muse.
November 5, 2025 at 2:16 PM
Paul Celan translated many of his poems from German into French for his wife Gisèle Lestrange. Two new books give us English versions of those translations, opening new perspectives on his work. I reviewed both of them for American Book Review, available from Project Muse.
Poet Anne Carson calls this meditation of hers on one of Proust's most memorable characters "The Albetine Workout". (Catherine Tillette played her in the 2011 French miniseries based on 'In search of lost time.')
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v3...
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v3...
November 4, 2025 at 8:03 PM
Poet Anne Carson calls this meditation of hers on one of Proust's most memorable characters "The Albetine Workout". (Catherine Tillette played her in the 2011 French miniseries based on 'In search of lost time.')
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v3...
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v3...
My apologies: that's the wrong photo. Here is a photograph of Anatole France. (The one above is of Emile Zola.)
November 4, 2025 at 2:09 PM
My apologies: that's the wrong photo. Here is a photograph of Anatole France. (The one above is of Emile Zola.)
'The law, in its majestic equality, forbids rich and poor alike from sleeping under bridges, begging in the streets, and stealing loaves of bread.'
Anatole France, 'The Red Lily' (1894)
France was the model for the writer Bergotte in Proust's 'In search of lost time'. (France in his Paris office.)
Anatole France, 'The Red Lily' (1894)
France was the model for the writer Bergotte in Proust's 'In search of lost time'. (France in his Paris office.)
November 1, 2025 at 8:28 PM
'The law, in its majestic equality, forbids rich and poor alike from sleeping under bridges, begging in the streets, and stealing loaves of bread.'
Anatole France, 'The Red Lily' (1894)
France was the model for the writer Bergotte in Proust's 'In search of lost time'. (France in his Paris office.)
Anatole France, 'The Red Lily' (1894)
France was the model for the writer Bergotte in Proust's 'In search of lost time'. (France in his Paris office.)
Hai visto questo video di Pasolini che legge parte del Canto 81 in italiano, con Pound che ascolta?
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aevn...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aevn...
October 31, 2025 at 12:43 AM
Hai visto questo video di Pasolini che legge parte del Canto 81 in italiano, con Pound che ascolta?
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aevn...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aevn...
He was born in the Idaho territory in 1885 and became one of the leaders of the Modernist movement in English poetry. Here's Ezra Pound reading his satirical poem 'Moeurs Contemporaines' from 1918; the photo is from his 1919 passport.
media.sas.upenn.edu/pennsound/au...
media.sas.upenn.edu/pennsound/au...
October 30, 2025 at 3:14 PM
He was born in the Idaho territory in 1885 and became one of the leaders of the Modernist movement in English poetry. Here's Ezra Pound reading his satirical poem 'Moeurs Contemporaines' from 1918; the photo is from his 1919 passport.
media.sas.upenn.edu/pennsound/au...
media.sas.upenn.edu/pennsound/au...
Trump wants a triumphal arch for Washington DC. Let's see, what have we triumphed over: poverty, ignorance, bigotry? Or is this about the triumph of one man over his political opponents? In any case, let's get the food stamps flowing first.
October 29, 2025 at 8:36 PM
Trump wants a triumphal arch for Washington DC. Let's see, what have we triumphed over: poverty, ignorance, bigotry? Or is this about the triumph of one man over his political opponents? In any case, let's get the food stamps flowing first.
'Instead of succumbing to nostalgic glorification, Richard Linklater [in 'Novelle Vague'] dissects the myths with subtle irony, cinephile tenderness, and his typical curiosity about the creative process.'
Mia Pflüger for Kino-Zeit in Germany; my translation.
I'll post the trailer in Comments.
Mia Pflüger for Kino-Zeit in Germany; my translation.
I'll post the trailer in Comments.
October 29, 2025 at 7:33 PM
'Instead of succumbing to nostalgic glorification, Richard Linklater [in 'Novelle Vague'] dissects the myths with subtle irony, cinephile tenderness, and his typical curiosity about the creative process.'
Mia Pflüger for Kino-Zeit in Germany; my translation.
I'll post the trailer in Comments.
Mia Pflüger for Kino-Zeit in Germany; my translation.
I'll post the trailer in Comments.
There's a wonderful reading of Proust's 'Du côté de chez Swann' (Swann's Way) from Comédie-Française, featuring more than three dozen of the company's actors. I prefer the readers who move at a slower pace, because his prose seems to unfold in a leisurely pace on the page.
I'll post the link below.
I'll post the link below.
October 29, 2025 at 6:14 PM
There's a wonderful reading of Proust's 'Du côté de chez Swann' (Swann's Way) from Comédie-Française, featuring more than three dozen of the company's actors. I prefer the readers who move at a slower pace, because his prose seems to unfold in a leisurely pace on the page.
I'll post the link below.
I'll post the link below.
The Duino Elegies were published 102 years ago this month and remain one of the most cherished works of modern literature. What would the First Elegy look like if it were translated in the English idiom of Rilke's day?
www.diehoren.com/2023/09/the-...
www.diehoren.com/2023/09/the-...
October 28, 2025 at 2:05 PM
The Duino Elegies were published 102 years ago this month and remain one of the most cherished works of modern literature. What would the First Elegy look like if it were translated in the English idiom of Rilke's day?
www.diehoren.com/2023/09/the-...
www.diehoren.com/2023/09/the-...
Here's the full canvas:
October 27, 2025 at 2:14 AM
Here's the full canvas:
A delightful visit to New York's Museum of Modern Art with our cousins Marta and Bill and their son Burkely. The work that spoke most to me today -- maybe because I've been reading Proust -- was 'Embroidery' by Édouard Vuillard (1895-96). This is a detail; I'll post the full canvas in Comments.
October 27, 2025 at 2:13 AM
A delightful visit to New York's Museum of Modern Art with our cousins Marta and Bill and their son Burkely. The work that spoke most to me today -- maybe because I've been reading Proust -- was 'Embroidery' by Édouard Vuillard (1895-96). This is a detail; I'll post the full canvas in Comments.
It's that time again: October ends, November starts . . .
October ends, November starts
with skies of lavender and pink.
Alone in crowds of Montréal,
I walk and run on Mount Royal . . .
October ends, November starts
with skies of lavender and pink.
Alone in crowds of Montréal,
I walk and run on Mount Royal . . .
October 25, 2025 at 1:12 PM
It's that time again: October ends, November starts . . .
October ends, November starts
with skies of lavender and pink.
Alone in crowds of Montréal,
I walk and run on Mount Royal . . .
October ends, November starts
with skies of lavender and pink.
Alone in crowds of Montréal,
I walk and run on Mount Royal . . .
Enjoying Neville Jason's audiobook reading of 'In search of lost time'. He uses the Moncrieff translaiton, and his reading is deliciously and judiciously right -- a marvel, really. I'll post an excerpt in Comments.
October 21, 2025 at 9:18 PM
Enjoying Neville Jason's audiobook reading of 'In search of lost time'. He uses the Moncrieff translaiton, and his reading is deliciously and judiciously right -- a marvel, really. I'll post an excerpt in Comments.
Thought for the day from Marcel Proust, as translated by Charlotte Mandel (Oxford World Classics).
October 20, 2025 at 8:40 PM
Thought for the day from Marcel Proust, as translated by Charlotte Mandel (Oxford World Classics).
Another view of yesterday's No Kings march in New York.
October 19, 2025 at 1:56 PM
Another view of yesterday's No Kings march in New York.