Kristin Dykstra

...translating Ángel Escobar
Protection of the Order [245 words]

If one adds a detail to reality

one transforms the world.  Méliès did it—

and ended up selling toys in a fair.

I’m not Basquiat (1960-1988) but I will raise my voice –

you all can tell me to go to hell,

I’ll tell you like he did:  “This examination is over.”

I don’t have what it takes, according to Holderlin, for

the golden mediocrity of life.  I think I think, with him,

that what lasts is made by poets – and so like Franz

I have a curious animal, half kitty,

half lamb – inheritance from the father.  Franz

comes to be the poet, and I dig another tunnel of the Twenty.

I am an old corrupt mole; I go back to the ark—

while Voltaire tends his own garden.  And I say:
I’d like to carry out an act liberating me as it unfolds – but

the thing internal to what is called an act, is the fact that one

does not know oneself, says Jacques Lacan my psychoanalyst to me.

The desire to live in more than one world doesn’t give me salvation—

I don’t know Blumenberg, I’m not lost in the forest

like a maiden.  Or yes:  I am lost, and alone, an animal

quartered before so many roads:  they break it open, knock it over.

Then he tells me about Sunday’s reading

which says mean-ing is the re-nun-ci-a-tion of a mean-ing.  I’m scared,

but tomorrow I’m off to Sibanicú, tomorrow.[1]

 

[1] Translation and original poem published in introduction to Breach of Trust / Abuso de confianza, by Ángel Escobar.  Tr. and int. Kristin Dykstra. Tuscaloosa:  University of Alabama Press, 2016.

[Si se le agrega un detalle a la realidad / se transforma al mundo.  Méliès lo hizo— / y terminó vendiendo juguetes en una feria. / Yo no soy Basquiat (1960-1988), pero alzaré la voz— / ustedes podrían igual decirme que vaya al diablo, / yo les diré como él:  “El examen ha terminado”. / No tengo lo que se requiere para, según Holderlin, / la dorada mediocridad de la vida.  Creo creer, con él, / que lo que queda lo fundan los poetas –así tengo, / como Franz, un animal curioso, mitad gatito, / mitad cordero –es una herencia del padre.  Franz / viene a ser el poeta, y yo cavo otro túnel del Veinte. / Yo soy un viejo topo corrupto; vuelvo al arca— / mientras Voltaire cultiva su jardín propio.  Y digo: / Quisiera hacer un acto que me libere andando –pero / lo interno a lo que se llama acto, es que se desconoce / a sí mismo, me dice Jacques Lacan, mi sicoanalista. / No me salva el querer que vivamos en más de un mundo— / no conozco a Blumenberg, ni estoy perdido en el bosque / como una doncella.  O sí:  estoy perdido, y solo, res / destazada ante tantos caminos:  la desjarretan, la tumban. / Luego me dice rintintín de la lectura de domingo / que el sentido es la renuncia a un sentido.  Tengo miedo, / pero mañana me voy p’a Sibanicú, mañana.  (“Resguardo del orden”)]

Protection of the Order Xenotranslation 2: 122.5 words

add detail to

transform the world.  Méliès did—

selling toys in a fair.

Basquiat (1960-1988) will

tell me to go to hell,

I tell you:  “This examination is over.”

what golden mediocrity

takes.  I think I think

what is made by poets –

half kitty,

half lamb – father Franz

at another tunnel.

I am corrupt; I go back—

Voltaire tends his garden.  say:
carry out an act, liberating as it unfolds –

the thing is the fact that one

does not know oneself.

desire to live salvation—

don’t know, I’m not lost in the forest

0r yes:  lost, alone,

quartered: break it open, knock it over.

Sunday’s read

says mean-ing is re-nun-ci-a-tion.  I’m scared

but tomorrow I’m off to Sibanicú, tomorrow.

 

 

 

Protection of the Order Xenotranslation 3: 61.3 words

 

to

the world.  did

toys in a fair.

Basquiat

hell,

I is over.

gold

I think I think

poets –

half half l – father Franz

other tunnel.

I am

his garden.  say:
an act folds –

the thing is fact.

live salvation—

know I’m not

yes:  lost, alone,

open, over.

Sunday’s read

says re-nun-ci-a-tion.  I’m scared

but tomorrow I’m off to Sibanicú, tomorrow.

Protection of the Order Xenotranslation 3: 61.3 words

to

the world.  did

toys in a fair.

Basquiat

hell,

I is over.

gold

I think I think

poets –

half half l – father Franz

other tunnel.

I am

his garden.  say:
an act folds –

the thing is fact.

live salvation—

know I’m not

yes:  lost, alone,

open, over.

Sunday’s read

says re-nun-ci-a-tion.  I’m scared

but tomorrow I’m off to Sibanicú, tomorrow.

Protection of the Order Xenotranslation 4: 30.6 words

to the toys

Basquiat,

I is over.

golden

I think poets –

half l father

tunnel.

I say: act, thing, fact.

salvation—

not yes:  one, open

Sunday’s

re-nun-ci-a-tion

tomorrow Sibanicú, too.

Protection of the Order Xenotranslation 5: 15.3 words

Basquiat is over.

golden

poet father

say: salvation

no

yes:  o

Sunday re-nun-ci-a-tion

tomorrow too.

Protection of the Order Xenotranslation 6: 7.7 words

Basquiat old father: no

yes:  o

re-nun-ci-a-tion

Protection of the Order Xenotranslation 7: 3.9 words

no yes o

e-nun-ci-a-tion

Protection of the Order Xenotranslation 8: 2 words

no – yes

Protection of the Order Xenotranslation 9: 1 word

noes

Kristin Dykstra

Kristin Dykstra has translated numerous books and is currently working on material by Omar Pérez, Álvaro Mutis, Amanda Berenguer, and Rito Aroche.  Three of her most recent bilingual editions, with her critical introductions, appeared from the University of Alabama Press in 2016:  The Counterpunch (And Other Horizontal Poems), by Juan Carlos Flores; Breach of Trust, by Ángel Escobar; and The World as Presence, by Marcelo Morales. Dykstra’s translation of Other Letters to Milena, by Reina María Rodríguez, was published by UAP in 2014.  Her recent online commentaries on translation appear in an invited series for the University of Pennsylvania poetics magazine Jacket2, as well as “NO: The Translation of Ángel Escobar,” an essay on abjection and dissent for The Volta adapted from the Escobar book. She won the 2014 Gulf Coast Prize in Literary Translation for her renditions of poems by Morales.  Previously she co-edited Mandorla:  New Writing from the Americas with Gabriel Bernal Granados and Roberto Tejada.

 

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