Canción de la muerte

Canción de la Muerte La vieja Empadronadora, la mañosa Muerte, cuando vaya de camino, mi niño no encuentre. La que huele a los nacidos y husmea su leche, encuentre sales y harinas, mi leche no encuentre. La Contra-Madre del Mundo, la Convida-gentes, por las playas y las rutas no halle al inocente. El nombre de su bautismo --la flor con que crece — lo olvide la memoriosa, lo pierda, la Muerte. De vientos, de sal y arenas se vuelve demente, y trueque, la desvariada, el Oeste, y el Este. Niño y madre los confunda los mismo que peces, y en el día y en la hora a mí sola encuentre. Song of Death Old Woman Census-taker, Death the Trickster, when you're going along, don't you meet my baby. Sniffing at newborns, smelling for the milk, find salt, find cornmeal, don't find my milk. Anti-Mother of the world, People-Collector — on the beaches and byways, don't meet that child. The name he was baptized, that flower he grows with, forget it, Rememberer. Lose it, Death. Let wind and salt and sand drive you crazy, mix you up so you can't tell East from West, or mother from child, like fish in the sea. And on the day, at the hour, find only me. URSULA LE GUIN Y LA POESÍA DE GABRIELA MISTRAL Ursula K. Le Guin ha traducido al inglés 164 poemas de Mistral en un libro bilingüe publicado por la editorial de la Universidad de Nuevo México. Tanto en su selección como en la hábil traducción de los poemas, Le Guin refleja el alcance de la obra de Mistral y la coloca en un lugar prominente de las letras americanas. El contenido social de la obra de Mistral, aunado a una forma poética destilada a la esencia, le mereció en 1945 el Premio Nobel de Literatura, otorgado entonces por primera vez a las letras hispanoamericanas. En el prólogo, Le Guin cuenta que hace unos diez años había recibido de su amiga, la escritora argentina Diana Bellessi, un librito con una selección de poemas de Mistral. "Lo leí y me enamoré," escribe. "Como la mayoría de los norteamericanos", continúa, "yo no sabía nada acerca de Mistral. Ella representó un nuevo mundo, un terreno salvaje, un nuevo idioma". Le Guin prefiere no abrumar al lector con detalles explicativos sobre la obra poética de Mistral, si no dejar que los poemas, en original y traducción, hablen por cuenta propia. Aborda, sin embargo, con suma delicadeza el tema de su reciente oscuridad, sorprendente al tratarse de una obra merecedora del más alto galardón de las letras universales. Según Le Guin, la escasa visibilidad de la obra de Mistral no se debe a problemas de accesibilidad de lenguaje o de oposición geopolítica de norte y sur. Se trata, asegura, de un problema de género. "Adulada como poetisa, a Mistral no se le lee como poeta", explica. Le Guin advierte que la figura de Mistral ha sido reducida a los elementos más tradicionales de su biografía: un romance adolescente, la maternidad frustrada y su oficio de maestra. Debe destacarse lo que a menudo queda fuera, añade, el carácter autodidacta de su obra y la determinación obsesiva con la cual trabajó el arte de la poesía. "La poesía tiende a sufrir un eclipse tras la muerte del poeta", escribe Le Guin. "Los hombres, sin embargo, lo sobreviven mucho más que las mujeres". Le Guin sugiere que la figura luminosa de Pablo Neruda -quien fue alumno de Mistral- ha contribuido a oscurecer su obra. Son muchas las diferencias, pero también las semejanzas entre la obra de ambos, añade, sugiriendo además que una lectura comparativa podría enriquecer la lectura de ambos poetas. Le Guin ha logrado una traducción brillante de la obra selecta de Mistral, destacando las sutilezas que bien hubieran podido pasar desapercibidas ante ojos menos atentos. La traductora confiesa, sin embargo, que su conocimiento del español es pobre, ya que nunca ha tomado un curso de lengua y tampoco puede hablarlo o entenderlo. Le Guin cuenta que aprendió a leerlo en traducciones de su propia obra y más tarde al intentar leer la obra de Borges con la ayuda de un diccionario. El resultado, sin embargo, es impresionante. Con la ayuda de la poeta Aleida Rodríguez, Le Guin logra trasmitir en los 164 poemas que se incluyen en el libro, la esencia cruda de la poesía de Mistral. El lenguaje preciso de las traducciones evoca las pasiones mitigadas por el verso de Mistral y le devuelve su lugar de prominencia en las letras universales aún hoy a 54 años de su muerte. (SELECTED POEMS OF GABRIELA MISTRAL. Ursula K. Le Guin. University of New Mexico Press. 407 páginas.) EFE lg/esc

A History of the S.P.M.D.T.U. By José A.Rivera Photography by Daniel Salazar Book Signing and Platica. DATE: Saturday, April 30, 2011 TIME: 2:00-5:00 p.m. LOCATION: Museo de las Americas, 861 Santa Fe Drive, Denver, CO 80204 FREE In 1900 Celedonio Mondragon and several other San Luis Valley residents formed the Sociedad Protección Mútua de Trabajadores Unidos (SPMDTU) to help prevent the usurpation of Hispanic land ownership and to combat discrimination against wage laborers. The SPMDTU rapidly grew into a tristate organization with sixty-five local concilios (lodges) in Colorado, New Mexico and Utah. Hispanic mutual aid societies proliferated at the turn of the twentieth century, providing such services as financial aid, burial funding, low-cost insurance, and fraternal support. The SPMDTU consolidated relief and support services and became a powerful force in helping families survive the transformations wrought by the influx of Anglos, the federal government became the primary welfare service provider for rural communities, but the SPMDTU has survived in the Southwest, continuing its traditions of fellowship and support. Beginning with the social and economic conditions that gave rise to La Socieda and culminating with its centennial anniversary in 2000, José Rivera examines the SPMDTU as a case study of collective action in the context of a pluralistic American society, rapid social change, and the dynamics of mobilization for cultural survival. Rivera's study explores the core values that have bonded SPMDTU members across generations and have sustained the organization for more than a century and addresses the question of whether or not La Sociedad will survive the twenty-first century. Royalties generated by book sales will go towards the SPMDTU Concili Superior Building Conservation Fund. The Concilio Superior building is located on main Street in Antonito, Colorado. Sposored by the S.P.M.D.T.U., Concilio No.7, Denver, Colorado. Museo de las Americas 861 Santa Fe Drive Denver, Colorado 80204 303-571-4401 www.museo.org

Reading Gabriela Mistral

by Melinda Palacio

Melinda Palacio with Santa Barbara Poet Laureates, David Starkey, Barry Spacks, and Perie Longo

At last month’s First Thursday Santa Barbara, I had the privilege to read poems in Spanish by Gabriela Mistral. Every now and then I get to prove I’m no pocha as I twirl and roll rs in my best Los Angelina accent. I can say this with a wink because my cousins in Chihuahua always made fun of me when I spoke.

Gabriela Mistral changed her name from Lucila Godoy y Alcayaga, but I’m sure she never had trouble pronouncing tongue twister words. If Youtube had been invented during Mistral’s lifetime, an energetic Mistral would read her poems in perfect Chilean Spanish. Currently, Youtube has several videos, with thousands of viewings, dedicated to Mistral, the first Latina to win the Nobel Prize in Literature. There’s some fuzzy Youtube footage of Mistral receiving her Nobel Prize for Poetry in 1945. A year later, she bought a house in Santa Barbara at 729 Anapamu Street, across from the High School, where she taught during her stay in town. She wrote several poems about living in Santa Barbara, including “You No Tengo Soledad,” memorialized in a tile at the school’s library. Mistral enjoyed education so much she became a teacher at the tender age of fifteen.

Santa Barbara Poet Laureate Emeritus Barry Spacks read the English translation while I read the original Spanish of Mistral’s “Cancion de la Muerte,” “Dame la Mano,” “Canto Que Amabas.” During his tenure as poet laureate, Barry wrote the poem, “Celebrating Gabriela Mistral,” for the installation of the memorial plaque at Alameda Park in 2005. City Poet Laureates often get stuck writing poems to inaugurate a mayor’s new dog or a long forgotten city building. For those who might be confused because they know the current Santa Barbara Poet Laureate, David Starkey, or the past Poet Laureate, Perie Longo, I’ll simply say that the city of Santa Barbara has had three poet laureates since 2005: Barry, Perie, and David. Too bad David doesn’t rhyme with Perie or Barry.

Poet and sculptor Alison Schaumberg stumbled on the 2005ceremony and slideshow honoring Mistral by accident. Schaumberg one of her angel sculptors in the Reflections on Poverty art show at the Santa Barbara Public Library’s Faulkner Gallery when she noticed people moving chairs for the event. “It was total serendipity,” she said, “The Ambassador (Andres Bianchi) from Chile brought this special rock and there was a slide show.” Barry Spacks’s poem, “Celebrating Gabriela Mistral,” was later etched onto the volcanic rock from Chile. The ceremony was Alison’s introduction to Mistral. Also, in 2005, a younger audience would also be introduced to Mistral’s work via Monica Brown’s bilingual children’s book, My Name is Gabriela/Me llamo Gabriela: The Life of Gabriela Mistral/la vida de Gabriela Mistral.

The recognition for Mistral’s accomplishments and residency in Santa Barbara was long overdue, given she lived in town during the forties. Last year, I had the opportunity to read poems by Mistral twice, in April during Sojourner Rolle’s Langston Hughes reading, (Hughes translated several of Mistral poems into English and he was a good friend of Mistral’s), and at last month’s First Thursday Santa Barbara, December 6 at Sullivan Goss Gallery.

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Support Poets in Los Angeles this weekend. Thelma Reyna reads from her work Saturday, January 8 at the Altadena Main Public Library at 2pm. On Sunday, prepare for some bold poesia by Urayoén Noel and Cristián Flores Garcia at REDCAT Lounge in downtown Los Angeles, sponsored by PALABRA Literary Magazine. Finish your poetic weekend at Beyond Baroque with Nikki Giovanni at 5:30pm.