RSSPor caminos de pajaros: A week of Spanish-speaking poets
Apr 13
Poetry, Reading, Uncategorized, Writing Gabriela Mistral, Gioconda Belli, Octavio Paz, pajaros, poemas que me hacen feliz, venas No Comments
Seeing as my weekend was eaten by the “Lotsathingstodo” monster, I’m going to do a round-up here of the last three days worth of poets.
I’m heading in a slightly different direction this week by focusing on Spanish-speaking poets. It’s a group near to my heart because of my study of their language and the time I spent in Spain and New Mexico. Spanish is a language that can be both sonorous and staccato; that can lisp across the tongue or curl and tuck itself along the cheeks, depending on where the speaker comes from. And when that language is put down on the page, it’s beauty becomes even more clear. I’ll be posting both the original Spanish and the English translation (when available) so you can get a sense for both.
Gabriela Mistral (Chile)
I found Gabriela Mistral in college, when I was required to write a paper for a Spanish literature class. I don’t think I fully appreciated her then, but I did know that her language was beautiful. She is of particular note as the first Latin American to win the Nobel Prize for Literature. Read more about her.
Below, a stanza from her poem “The Abandoned Woman,” found in the book Mad Woman, translated by Randall Couch.
Me he sentado a mitad de la Tierra
amor mío, a mitad de la vida,
a abrir mis venas y mi pecho,
a mondarme en grande viva,
y a romper la caoba roja
de mis huesos que te querían.
I have sat down in the middle of the Earth,
my love, in the middle of my life,
to open my veins and my chest,
to peel my skin like a pomegranate,
and to break the red mahogany
of these bones that loved you.
Octavio Paz (Mexico)
I can’t remember the first time I read Paz. It was likely in a literature class in college. But I do remember buying The Collected Poems of Octavio Paz, 1957-1987. A rather plain book, I’d been visiting it at the book store for months, thumbing through its pages, wanting to take it home, but I was strapped for cash and couldn’t afford the $22.95. But, as always happens with me, I could only walk away so many times, and finally I gave in. I walked out of the bookstore clutching the book to my chest, and I remember hauling it around with me for some time, reading pieces at random here and there, falling in love over and over with his starkly beautiful language. Here, a selection from “Interior.”
Pensamientos en guerra
quieren romper mi frente
Por caminos de pájaros
avanza la escritura
…
Con medias rojas y cara pálida
entran tú y la noche
Warring thoughts try
to split my skull
This writing moves
through streets of birds
…
With red stockings and a pale face
you and the night come in
Learn more about Octavio Paz at Poets.org.
Gioconda Belli (Nicaragua)
I love Gioconda Belli because she is frank and honest. She is not afraid to write what she feels, even if it’s a little uncomfortable. I wish I always felt so comfortable in my own existence as she seems to. Her poem “And God Made Me Woman” is a great example of this blunt beauty:
Y Dios me hizo mujer,
de pelo largo,
ojos,
nariz y boca de mujer.
Con curvas
y pliegues
y suaves hondonadas
y me cavó por dentor,
me hizo un taller de seres humanos.
And God made me .
With the long hair,
with the eyes,
the nose and mouth of a woman.
With the curves
and folds
and soft hollows.
God carved into me a workshop for human beings.