WEBVTT

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They're the two Latin
names to refer--

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well, two of several Latin
names to refer to the Virgin.

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It's found in an origin
as well as house.

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I believe [INAUDIBLE] sort of
like going back to that mother,

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and at the same time to my own
mother, mothers in general--

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motherhood I guess.

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Just curious.

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How many people
speak some Spanish?

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Oh, great.

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Yeah.

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Tucson, yeah.

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[LAUGHTER]

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I think she'll have a
different kind of answer.

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She's translated so
many different people.

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And I think it's varied with the
people that she's worked with.

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In translating this book, she
pretty much left me on my own

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I think to better teach me
to be a patient translator.

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So even sometimes when I made
a mistake she would say, oh,

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yeah, that's fine.

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And then like
three months later,

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I'd say, wait, that wasn't fine.

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And so I sort of
worked on my own a lot.

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And then more
recently we started

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to do things a little more
in contact with each other.

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And I think she's
worked in different ways

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with Seamus and--

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Yes, well, each poet that one
translates is a different trip.

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So there's different risks
and different abysses I guess.

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So as a translator, because
I have experienced poets that

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have been with me
the whole time,

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like with a magnifying
glass and in my fortunes

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and my misfortunes and
whatever I have done,

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as well as people
who have left me just

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go on with the trip on my own--

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I respect the place of the
translator as a creator.

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And I think that
intervening too much

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is not letting that
person in peace

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do whatever he is trying to do.

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And the more freedom, the
better the versions, at least

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in my experience.

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Does that answer [INAUDIBLE]?

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Well, that's why I think
translation is so important,

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because it does bring different
rhythms and images and ideas

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and ranges of association
into a language.

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And English, which is so
much the language of power,

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it's sort of injecting
it with some things

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that it's usually injecting
the rest of the world with.

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Because translation is
also always concerned

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with the flow of power.

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So I really like opening
up the English language

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with the different
patterns that come out

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of Latin American poetry.

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Sometimes, more specifically
in translating Pura's poetry,

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you hear, Pura's poetry
is so mellifluous.

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And Spanish can be
so fluid, more fluid

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than I can make the English.

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And sometimes,
because the vowels

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are so focused upon in her work,
I can't catch that in vowels.

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Sometimes, well, she'll have
a run of these beautiful vowel

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sounds.

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I'll try to make an equivalent
with consonants, because I

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can't hit it in vowel sounds.

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So you find ways of
going for equivalences

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in the different languages
to try to make something

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of an approximate power happen.

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And that's always a pleasure.

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It's not even accepted
in Mexico City.

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[LAUGHTER]

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[INAUDIBLE] to
tell you the truth.

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No, it is accepted.

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I'm just joking.

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But Mexico City is, as you
all know, a place where

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everything is happening.

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Very rarely you will
find another city-- well

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Guadalajara is
being more and more

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because they have now the book
fair, the International Book

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Fair.

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So they're more
interested in having

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readings and things I guess.

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But readings are
not that common.

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Poets publish a lot and
find ways of publishing

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through the government.

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The government supports
a lot of the poets.

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They are part of this National--
the equivalent of the National

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Endowment for the Arts.

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And so the government
gives money

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for publishing of their
books and other things.

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And the books get to children's
libraries and free libraries.

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And it's around the country
as much as it can be.

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But readings are not popular.

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And I get more
acceptance of my poetry

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from people that are not
writing or people that are not--

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it's always a miracle
and a surprise

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to get the acknowledgment
of another poet in Mexico.

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It's a very rare jewel.

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I don't-- and men
poets, it's difficult.

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So when you get a
compliment like the one

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we got from Eliot Weinberger
the other day, I mean,

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that is really something.

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So fortunately, I'm
not writing poetry

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that is directed towards
acceptance or an audience.

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But it is there, definitely.

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Sometimes it's just something
that happens, a gift, I mean,

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when you really are
satisfied with something.

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And I guess the more you know
a poet, the more his style.

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And the more you
have been struggling

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or are in the deepest of
pleasures with his style

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and trying to find equivalences,
the better the translations.

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But sometimes it's
just a question

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of chance of
something happening.

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Of course, the more
you work, the better.

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I mean, not work enough
to destroy the poem

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and keep one word, but
to work seriously enough.

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And I take translation
very seriously.

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It's probably against myself,
but I do take it seriously.

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The ones that Bob Hass went to
Mexico to-- for the launching

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of one of the books of his
that I had translated--

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one of my teachers at the
university, who had been my--

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what I call my teacher
with capital M, Maestro--

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got near me and said, god,
when he reads his poetry,

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it's just as an everyday thing.

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And when you read it, it's like
it's the Bible or something--

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really, really serious.

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And that's language.

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It's not my translation.

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It's the god in language more
than the god in poetry that

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is expressing itself I guess.

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I don't know if I
understand your question--

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Well, I know.

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I--

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--differently.

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Perhaps I said something--

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I mean--

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Well, you're
creating a new poem.

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Oh, definitely.

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So your skill for
poetry is going

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to affect your
translation [INAUDIBLE]??

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Yeah.

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So I just wanted a response--

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You don't-- you can't
be frivolous in this.

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If you have a poem that
has a challenge in form,

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you can't ignore that.

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I mean, It will
be very easy just

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to do something that
is clever and well done

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because you already know,
more or less, the tricks

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of the trade or whatever.

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But it's not that.

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That's not the point.

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Pura, tell them about
the two-- the anthology

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that came out where the
first volume is translated

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by scholars, and the second
part is translated by the poet.

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I mean, that's--

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[INTERPOSING VOICES]

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Every time I say this,
I feel worse and worse.

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Well, there was this fantastic
enterprise carried out

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by the National
University of Mexico

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of an anthology, a
comprehensive anthology,

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bilingual from Edgar
Allan Poe to the Beats.

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And then they decided
to go on further.

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So they made two volumes,
one that was before the Beats

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and one that had more
modern contemporary poetry.

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And the first one was
done by academics.

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And the second one was done
by poets that are translators.

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And the results are
very, very different.

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[INAUDIBLE]

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Yeah.

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Don't ask me what I prefer.

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I think it's all a matter--

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[LAUGHTER]

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Thank you very much.

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Thanks a lot.

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[APPLAUSE]

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