The Invention of Influence
Cole (The Poetry of the Kabbalah, 2012) is an esteemed and prolific translator, ­concentrating on Hebrew literature, notably poetry from medieval Spain, and the recipient of many honors, including a MacArthur “genius grant.” The Invention of Influence is his fourth collection, and it is masterful. Harold Bloom’s introduction—an imprimatur of quality if there ever was one—combines fulsome praise with careful and welcome exposition of some of the countless allusions in this deeply profound, committed verse. The long narrative title poem examines the life and work of Victor Tausk, an early disciple of Freud who committed suicide. The variety of verse forms, the attention to and respect for Tausk’s complex path, the pressure the poem contains and releases—it might be a masterpiece. Unsurprisingly, Cole seems concerned most often with translation, in all its possible permutations: from language to language, from idea into word, from the unspeakable into speech: “We’re not quite sons, he cautions, of God— / but might be children of the Word.” --Michael Autrey