[from tra(n)shumancias (2015) by Luz Pichel]
[translation from the Galician: Neil Anderson (2018)]
Sunday, November 18, 2018
Sunday, November 4, 2018
Luz Pichel-Prologue Poem
A univocidade normativa, que se pretende imprescindible para unha lingua, vén sendo a univocidade do poder contra a pluralidade riquísima de voces que conforman un pobo.
The single voice of standardized language, which is claimed to be of such crucial importance, was and is the single voice of power in opposition to the rich plurality of voices that make up a people.
~Luz Pichel
The piece below is an English version of first poem from Luz Pichel's Cativa en su lughar, the poem that first drew me to Pichel's work. It is a poem that I have always feared to translate, knowing that the linguistic multiplicity and inventive impulse of the original would certainly not arrive intact in any English translation I could devise. Later, through the process of translating some of Pichel's later work from CoCoCoU (2017) and studying Ángela Segovia's remarkable Spanish-language versions, I gave up on the idea of capturing this poem in English, preferring instead to be open to its multiplicity. What follows is but one version of what could be many, rendered in an English that feels to me relaxed and open to invention.
~NA
Prologue Poem
to the animal
The single voice of standardized language, which is claimed to be of such crucial importance, was and is the single voice of power in opposition to the rich plurality of voices that make up a people.
~Luz Pichel
The piece below is an English version of first poem from Luz Pichel's Cativa en su lughar, the poem that first drew me to Pichel's work. It is a poem that I have always feared to translate, knowing that the linguistic multiplicity and inventive impulse of the original would certainly not arrive intact in any English translation I could devise. Later, through the process of translating some of Pichel's later work from CoCoCoU (2017) and studying Ángela Segovia's remarkable Spanish-language versions, I gave up on the idea of capturing this poem in English, preferring instead to be open to its multiplicity. What follows is but one version of what could be many, rendered in an English that feels to me relaxed and open to invention.
~NA
Prologue Poem
to the animal
An
animal, a cat, e’s a cat
two
corneas, two vertical slits before the deep
the
deepest deep, the night, the deepestnight.
In
the darkest night e rises, en plan littleanimal,
e
digs iz back paws into the Alto das Penas,
e
rises up and looks back at the house that was iz master’s
what’s
become of iz master
the
deep down there, it’s so damn deep
e
whines, e mews, e’s
a
wounded pup
a
longass shadow
a
shadow a thread
a
darkass blade
a
blade pitchblack
it’ll
stick you till yer stuck
stick
it tuya till yr goodn stuck n we’re gonna have to killim
we’re
gonna have to killim
Him
we’re gonna hafta kill.
[translated from the Castrapo by Neil Anderson]
Luz Pichel. Cativa en su lughar / casa pechada. Madrid: Progresele, 2013.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)