Photo from the first "travesía", voyage, made in 1965
Various authors
the journey reaches its height
as the eyes
its traveled soil
wouldn't it reveal in the flesh
a rhythm
to start off a language?
without a language
all the roads into our intimacy
though they lead us
are a distortion & a trick
a language?
this one?
the one who listens now the deaf ripples of the american sea
still beating after all imitation
& regret
which claims for a continent
& embraces us within its stars
to create lands?
...
where do we get the names
of the american discovery?
in what void were they born?
greed
bloody
aims
the clear
sea
is called
– & he answered
that people from culua
sent him to be sacrificed
& since he was a stutterer
he mumbled
oluaolua
& as our capt'n
was there
& his name was juan
& it was the day of san juan
we christened
that isle
san juan de ulúa
which is now
a widely known harbor
– & when he was saying that
in his own tongue
I recall'd he said
conescotoch conescotoch
which means
ye come to mine house
& that is why we named
those lands
since then
punta de cotoche
& that is how it shows up on the nautical charts
farther they found
some men
they asked them about the name
of a big town
near around
they said
téctetan téctetan
which stands for
I don't understand you
but the spaniards thought
that was its name
corrupting
the word since then
they called the place
yucatán
& that name 'll never fade away
& he told
his own name
saying
beru
and he added
& said
pelu
he meant
if ye ask me for mine name
my name is beru
but if ye ask me where I was
I´ll say
I was on the river
christians grasp what they wanted thinking
the native understood them & really meant his answer as if he & they were
actually speaking in spanish & since then that was fifteen fifteen or fifteen
sixteen they named peru that rich & vast empire corrupting both names
as the spaniards corrupt almost every word taken from the Indigenous languages
...
so america burst and came into a transition
that's its origin – to be in transition
in transition not from the past to the present not from barbarity to
civilization but in a present transition
present is just what has a destiny
destiny is just fidelity to the origin
america has only a destiny when its bursting & upwelling are both present
...
& so
said mourão
mello mourão
gerardo
as the gospel's rebukes
charitas christi
urge us
love of america
because
since the beginning of time
the poet
was credited
with the gift
to foresee things
no one
as the poet
bears
the
essence of human history
in which
destinies are made
& that's why we feel here
that now
a new era of history
begins
with the
epiphany of america
...
everything relies on the comprehension of this line of Hölderlin–
was bleibet aber stiften die dichter
what does stiften mean?
it's not to found & yet it is to give a chance stiften is the giver
whose gifts or talents allow us to come to an end
the poet is the giver
....
stiften is not to found damnit! it is
to tune our dwelling in its own rhythm
to give the frame then the starting
shot giving money is a
way of founding –
what will the amerodyssey give?
the road isn't the road
Translated from Spanish by Javier Taboada
COMMENTARY
(1) Travesía was the name of a sea journey made by architects, philosophers, poets & visual artists -- Latin-American & European -- such as Edison Simons, Jonathan Boulting, Alberto Cruz, Fabio Cruz, Michel Deguy, François Fédier, Claudio Girola, Godofredo Iommi, Gerardo Mello Mourão, Jorge Pérez Román, & Henri Tronquoy -- whose main goal was to found an "American Poetical Capital" in Santa Cruz de la Paz, Bolivia. The journey shipped off from Tierra del Fuego, in 1965. During the trip, the crew members landed at different points in South America & there they performed artistic actions, none of them premeditated. They couldn't however reach Santa Cruz: they were stopped by the Bolivian Army & were forced to quit. In 1967, the members of Travesía reunited & created Amereida (translated here as Amerodyssey) -- a collective long poem without any evident authorship or capital letters -- that reenacts & goes deep into their experience. Other Travesías followed up to the present time. While the "Poetical Capital" was never established, their idea shaped the foundation (in 1971) of Ciudad Abierta [Open City] in Chile, an architecturally revolutionary & experimentally designed city, supported by the Catholic University of Valparaíso
(2) The route sketched here moves from southernmost Tierra del Fuego (shown on top) to Santa Cruz in Bolivia (at bottom). Of this inverted route they write: "it’s america seen from earth! / from below or otherwise / where dante comes from & the dead are."
(3) The preceding will appear next year in A Book of Americas: Toward a Poetry & Poetics of the Americas, from Origins to Present, co-edited by J,R, with Javier Taboada & published by University of California Press.
No comments:
Post a Comment