Journal Issue
Open this 1967 issue of Comment in Motion and the contents begin making their own introductions. It contains 30 named pieces or sections, beginning with Comment in Motion by Grover Jacoby, Half Through Life by Friedrich Hölderlin, and Never More by Jean Moréas. That opening offers a direct path through the issue, but it is not the only one. A reader can follow the printed order, pause over a familiar contributor, or start with a title that catches the eye. No special background is needed. The magazine explains itself gradually through the choices it makes and through the company each piece keeps.
This number makes Heinrich Heine the center of its experiment, carrying 10 poems—from From “Neuer Fruhling” to The Lorelei—into Grover Jacoby’s fluctuant syllabic measure. Translations of Friedrich Hölderlin, Rosalía Castro, Giacomo Leopardi broaden the comparison, so the issue reads as a set of practical tests rather than a single showcase. Comment in Motion supplies the turning point, explaining what the verse itself is trying to preserve: movement, stress, and rhetorical force across languages. The result is both a small anthology and a compact demonstration of translation as an argument about poetic time.
The contents page also works like a small map. Early entries establish the issue’s first set of voices; around the middle, From “En Las Orillas Del Sar” by Rosalía Castro changes the view; the closing stretch reaches Before and Now by Friedrich Hölderlin. The works differ in length, subject, and manner, yet their placement creates connections that a simple list of names cannot show. The pleasure comes from those changes. A short piece can clear the air after a longer one, a new voice can redirect the mood, and an unexpected title can make an earlier page look different when the reader thinks back to it.
The contributor list includes Grover Jacoby, Friedrich Hölderlin, Jean Moréas, Paul Verlaine, Gustavo Bécquer, Heinrich Heine, Jules Laforgue, and Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, along with 5 additional contributors. Some readers will arrive looking for a particular name; others will meet these contributors here for the first time. Either approach works. The publication details add useful context: the issue was edited by Grover Jacoby, published by Variegation Publishing Company, and issued from Los Angeles, California. A journal is also a made object, assembled by people deciding what to print, how to order it, and which voices should share a number. Reading from beginning to end lets those choices appear naturally.
The catalog subjects—Los Angeles little magazines, American poetry, Poetry translation, Comparative poetics, and Fluctuant syllabic verse—are useful starting points, especially for searching, but they do not set limits on what a reader may find. For a first visit, begin with Comment in Motion by Grover Jacoby, turn next to From “En Las Orillas Del Sar” by Rosalía Castro, and finish with Before and Now by Friedrich Hölderlin. The clean reading edition is designed for that kind of movement. Original scan: 24 PDF pages. Reader’s edition: 47 pages. It keeps the contents in a stable, legible form and makes names and titles easier to find. A source facsimile remains part of the project’s private editorial record, but it is not included in the public upload. What appears here is the reading copy: a practical way to spend time with the issue and discover which pieces invite a return.
Contributors
- Grover Jacoby — Essayist; Translator
- Friedrich Hölderlin — Original poet
- Jean Moréas — Original poet
- Paul Verlaine — Original poet
- Gustavo Bécquer — Original poet
- Heinrich Heine — Original poet
- Jules Laforgue — Original poet
- Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz — Original poet
- Rosalía Castro — Original poet
- Giacomo Leopardi — Original poet
- J. W. von Goethe — Original poet
- André Chénier — Original poet
- Gérard de Nerval — Original poet
Publication details
Full contents
- Comment in Motion — Grover Jacoby [Essay]
- Half Through Life — Friedrich Hölderlin [Poem (translation), p. 7]
- Never More — Jean Moréas [Poem (translation), p. 8]
- Wisdom — Paul Verlaine [Poem (translation), p. 9]
- From “Rimas” — Gustavo Bécquer [Poem (translation), p. 10]
- From “Rimas” — Gustavo Bécquer [Poem (translation), p. 11]
- From “Neuer Fruhling” — Heinrich Heine [Poem (translation), p. 12]
- Der Asra — Heinrich Heine [Poem (translation), p. 13]
- From “Neuer Fruhling” — Heinrich Heine [Poem (translation), p. 14]
- With Your Blue Eyes — Heinrich Heine [Poem (translation), p. 15]
- Im Wunderschonen Monat Mai — Heinrich Heine [Poem (translation), p. 15]
- Childe Harold — Heinrich Heine [Poem (translation), p. 16]
- From “The North Sea” — Heinrich Heine [Poem (translation), p. 17]
- Where? — Heinrich Heine [Poem (translation), p. 18]
- Luck Is Just a Common Slattern — Heinrich Heine [Poem (translation), p. 19]
- Complaint Concerned with Certain Annoyances — Jules Laforgue [Poem (translation), p. 20]
- To Her Portrait — Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz [Poem (translation), p. 21]
- From “En Las Orillas Del Sar” — Rosalía Castro [Poem (translation), p. 22]
- From “En Las Orillas Del Sar” — Rosalía Castro [Poem (translation), p. 23]
- From “En Las Orillas Del Sar” — Rosalía Castro [Poem (translation), p. 24]
- From “En Las Orillas Del Sar” — Rosalía Castro [Poem (translation), p. 25]
- From “En Las Orillas Del Sar” — Rosalía Castro [Poem (translation), p. 26]
- The Homeland — Friedrich Hölderlin [Poem (translation), p. 27]
- Hyperion’s Song of Fate — Friedrich Hölderlin [Poem (translation), p. 28]
- Ode — Friedrich Hölderlin [Poem (translation), p. 29]
- Her Healing — Friedrich Hölderlin [Poem (translation), p. 30]
- Sunset — Friedrich Hölderlin [Poem (translation), p. 31]
- Socrates and Alcibiades — Friedrich Hölderlin [Poem (translation), p. 32]
- The Run of Life — Friedrich Hölderlin [Poem (translation), p. 33]
- To Himself — Giacomo Leopardi [Poem (translation), p. 34]
- L’infinito — Giacomo Leopardi [Poem (translation), p. 35]
- Found — J. W. von Goethe [Poem (translation), p. 36]
- The Lorelei — Heinrich Heine [Poem (translation), p. 37]
- Clytie — André Chénier [Poem (translation), p. 38]
- In the Woods — Gérard de Nerval [Poem (translation), p. 39]
- Before and Now — Friedrich Hölderlin [Poem (translation), p. 40]
Rights and citation
Copyright © 1967 by Grover Jacoby
Copyright Status Unresolved
The issue bears a 1967 copyright notice; rights in individual contributions and the compilation have not been fully resolved.
*Comment in Motion*, no. 1, 1967. Text/Tech Journals, reader’s edition.