Heaney's Sonnets in Spanish

Irish Pages LTD
HEANEY'S SONNETS IN SPANISH Author(s): Seamus Heaney and Pura Lpez Colom Source: Irish Pages, Vol. 5, No. 1, Language and Languages (2008), pp. 123-146 Published by: Irish Pages LTD Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20788521 . Accessed: 27/11/2013 14:52
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INOTHERWORDS:
Seamus Heaney
INTHE SPANISH
Si^Pura L?pez Colom?
HEANEY'S
SONNETS
IN SPANISH
Everylanguage is part of Language,which is largerthan any singlelanguage.Every whichislarger thantheliterature individual workispartofLiterature, ofanysingle literary
language ... Translation is the circulatory system of the world's literatures. Susan Sontag
one of Mexico s foremost The following 10 sonnetsby SeamusHeaney are translated by with facingoriginals, first appeared in poets, Pura L?pez Colom?. These translations, 61 ofHeaney's Sonetos(DGE Equilibrista, Mexico City, 2008), which brings togetherall was launched inDublin on 6 sonnets inher versions. The book April 2009, magisterial but otherwise has not appeared, and is unavailable, in theAnglophone world. Clearly,
in several There senses, Sonetos is, firstly, is a and endeavour. extraordinary signal publishing the aforementioned distinction of the translations themselves: hard
won fruitborn of a of love. Some 15 of the translationsin Sonetos long-distance labour

were done in the course of her
were two sonnets is the rest completed for thisvolume. Each of the 61 given workings, one tout one in court. in The quite unique double result is a poetry poetic prose, and burnishedmirroring of the actual linguisticprocess recognized by all translatorsof
poetry, "literals", to some extent: the deconstruction emerges or "cribs", out of which into unlineated of the and molten original in a new the rendered To the poem tongue.
previous
translation
of four
Heaney
collections,
whilst
actual translation, then, she adds something of the artisan high distinction of the of how it evolves, how it is done, in themost adept hands. fascination whole of theHispanic world in theAmericas and Spain, it is also ? obliquely ? one to
the English-speaking In the case of world. Shakespeare's Sonnets, which cannot but spring to mind in this context, If Sonetos is, indubitably, a long-term cultural gift not only to M?xico, but to the
the dating of thework is opaque. InHeaney's case, his virtuosity in the form spans Dark ("The collected sonnet inDoor into the virtuallyhis entire career, fromhis first to the last in District and Circle ("Polish Sleepers"), with every intervening Forge")
collection Gaeltacht") a number two or more examples, containing are recensions of this ancient innovative of which (such Such as "The template. are the
multifarious supplenesses and subtleties and surprises inhis handling of the form that has theEnglish-language reader beginswonder why no solo edition ofHeaney s Sonnets to ever this sudden in that and thence the appreciate appeared Anglophone world; in To have, and to read, all ofHeaney s sonnetsbetween M?xico by Sonetos. bilingually ? ? inboth perfect two covers those of Sonetos is, then, to glimpse his poetic genius
microcosm, its burnished and undimmed, Spanish abrazo. undaunted unsurpassed, The Editor full-flight... all the while beside inevitability, as it would seem, whenever it occurs, was nonetheless done first
123
IRISH
PAGES
GLANMORE SONNETS (I, II, X) from

for Ann Saddlemjer
welcomer" "our heartiest
Vowels
into other: opened ground. ploughed for twenty years The mildest February no sound Ismist bands over furrows, a deep to distant
tractors. gargling acres breathe. Our road is the turned-up steaming, a cross Now the life could be to field good of earth new from the lathe And art a paradigm Vulnerable
Of ploughs. My lea isdeeply tilled.

Old
the subsoil of each sense plough-socks gorge am a redolence And I quickened with Of farmland as a dark unblown rose. Wait themist, in sowers' aprons, Breasting come into their stations. My ghosts spring striding The dream whirls like freakish Easter snows. grain then...
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IN THE
SPANISH
SONETOS DE GLANMORE
Para Ann Saddlemyer
"por su calurosa bienvenida"
Las vocales vulnerable
araron unas en otras:
terreno abierto.
El febrero m?s
profundo a las tractores. Nuestro camino vaporiza, lejanas g?rgaras de los los surcos revueltos respiran. Ahora, la buena vida podr?a ser cruzar un un de la tierra nueva desde el torno de los arados. campo, y el arte paradigma a el subsuelo de cada Mi dehesa labrada fondo. Viejas rejas de arado engullen sentido: me anima la fragancia de los campos de cultivo, como una rosa oscura sin abrir. entonces ... Abri?ndose paso entre la bruma, con Espera mandil de sembrador, mis fantasmas llegan a zancadas hasta su agrimensura. como las nieves La semilla del sue?o pascuales. caprichosas gira,
de los ?ltimos veinte a?os es tiras de bruma
sobre un
benigno sinsonido,
Vocales:
surco arado y abierto. m?s leve febrero. veinte el En a?os, Bruma en tiras, un sinsonido hondo, vulnerable a los tractores remotos. inhala el terreno revuelto.
Camino:
Buena vida, cruzar a campo abierto; un y el arte paradigma, tierra, torno, arar. Mi campo labrado a fondo. El viejo arado el subsuelo degusta del sentido: el aroma regional,
cultivo, como rosas sin rosal.
Espera
... Se abren paso entre la bruma:

tan primaveral.
agrimensura,
Grano del sue?o entre nieve pascual.
125
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PAGES
II
from the Sensings, mountings hiding places, Words almost the sense of touch, entering themselves out of their dark hutch? Ferreting are not secrets but "These things mysteries", Oisin told me years ago Kelly In Belfast, after stone hankering That connived with the chisel, as if the grain to know. Remembered what themallet tapped
Then I landed in the of Glanmore hedge-school And from the backs of ditches to raise hoped A voice back off and slow chanter caught slug-horn That might continue, hold, dispel, appease: into other, Vowels opened ground, ploughed Each verse like the turned round. returning plough
126
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SPANISH
II
los escondites, casi penetran el palabras que desde su oscura "Estas cosas no madriguera. son secretos sino misterios", me en Belfast, dijo Oisin Kelly hace a?os en connivencia con el cincel, como si el ansiando la grano recordara piedra en la escuela rural entonces lo que el mazo saber. Aterric? golpeteaba por de Glanmore, y desde el fondo de las zanjas alzar una voz esperaba atrapada entre corno lento canto, continuar, detenerse, desvanecerse, que pudiera y desde sentido del tacto, husmeando vocales aradas en un terreno distinto, abierto, cada verso de apaciguarse: como el rev?s de un arado. regreso,
Sentires, remontares
Sentires, remontares encubiertos; husmeando all? en su oscura madriguera, en el sentido del tacto. palabras me Como Oisin dijo hace a?os: Kelly "Todo esto es un misterio, no un secreto",
en Belfast, ansiando cincel, piedra en connivencia, como si el grano recordara lo que deseaba el mazo. a la escuela rural de Glanmore Llego y desde el fondo de zanjas espero;
una voz entre corno y canto lento
se desvanecer?a Vocales:
sin temor.
surco arado y abierto, cual rev?s de un arado cada verso.
127
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PAGES
I dreamt we On
in a moss in slept Donegal turf banks under blankets, with our faces all night in a wetting drizzle,
Exposed Lorenzo
and Jessica in a cold climate. to be found. Diarmuid and Grainne waiting and censed, we were laid out Darkly asperged on a raised Like ground. breathing effigies ? And in that dream I dreamt ? how like you this? in that hotel Our first night years ago When you came with your deliberate kiss and painful lovely our Covenants of flesh; separateness; The respite in our dewy dreaming faces. To raise us towards the
Pallid as thedrippingsapling birches.
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SPANISH
en So?? que dorm?amos sobre musgo en de turba, terraplenes Donegal, a la cara a una intensa llovizna toda la noche, cobijados, intemperie, de como los en un clima Lorenzo abedules. j?venes, goteantes y Jessica p?lidos a sus fr?o. Diarmuid y Grainne captores. Oscuramente esperando e incensados, cual sobre terreno empapados yac?amos efigies respirando te vi nuestra noche hace a?os alzado. Y en ese sue?o parece?primera -?qu? en con tu beso intencional a elevarnos a los cuando aquel hotel, llegaste hermosos y dolorosos pactos de la carne. Nuestro cada quien por su lado, en nuestros rostros so?adores, ba?ados de roc?o. el sosiego
Dormidos
nos so?? a la intemperie: sobre musgo y terraplenes, Donegal, cara a ima llovizna intensa, de siempre abedules que gotean. p?lidos Lorenzo
en clima inclemente. y Jessica oscuramente Diarmuid y Grainne. Muy e incensados, a la espera, mojados efigies respirando en tierra abierta.
en el sue?o vi de ?C?mo ves?, pronto nuestra de hotel, a?os noche primera ha, y tu beso que lleg? a elevarnos al pacto de la carne, doloroso. Y nuestros seres, los dos por su lado, j?venes rostros, roc?o perlado.
129
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PAGES
CLEARANCES (U1,V) from

In mem?ri?m M.K.H., 1911-1984
III
When Iwas all the others were all hers as we away atMass
peeled potatoes. one broke the silence, let fall one They by iron: Like solder off the weeping soldering to share Cold comforts set between us, things in a bucket of clean water. Gleaming And let fall. Little again pleasant splashes us to our senses. From each other swork would bring at her bedside parish priest at the prayers for the Went hammer and tongs dying some were And and some crying responding I remembered her head bent towards my head, So while the Her breath inmine, Never our fluent closer thewhole knives? dipping rest of our lives.
130
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WORDS:
IN THE
SPANISH
ESPACIOS LIBRES
In mem?ri?m M.K.H., 1911-1984
III
Cuando suyo mientras como por una, pel?bamos papas. Romp?an cayendo briznas de soldadura escurriendo del caut?n: fr?as comodidades dispuestas en ima cubeta de entre nosotros, cosas que cintilando compratir, agua todos yo el silencio al ir una de la labor de cada de nuevo, la ca?da. Los placenteros chapaleos limpia. Y, nos hac?an volver a los cabales. As? a que mientras el p?rroco, junto quien su cama, dale que dale con las f?nebres hab?a quien segu?a plegarias, y su recordaba cabeza inclinada frente a lam?a, respond?a y quien lloraba, yo su aliento en elm?o, c?mo se hund?an nuestros cuchillos suavemente, nunca m?s cerca uno del otro por el resto de nuestras vidas. los dem?s se iban a misa, era todo
En tanto los dem?s
iban a misa,
era todo suyo al pelar papas. yo Una por una el sielncio quebraban, caut?n en chorros, soldadura en briznas: en la cubeta de agua limpia, entre ambas ?alivio algo que compartir manossegu?a cayendo. Salpicadas notas con las que alz?bamos la vista. brillando Mientras a su cama, p?rroco, junto tras ah? rezaba exequia exequia otros entre responsos le lloraban, y el
su frente en lam?a, yo recordaba nuestros eran el vaho y las cuchillas, nunca m?s cerca en todas nuestras vidas.
131
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PAGES
The cool that came off sheets just off the line must still be in them Made me think the damp But when
I took my corners of the linen And pulled against her, first straight down the hem And then then and shook flapped diagonally, The fabric like a sail in a cross-wind, made a dried-out thwack. They undulating So we'd stretch and fold and end up hand to hand had second as if happened nothing For had that had not always happened nothing split For a
Beforehand, dayby day,just touchand go, close Coming againbyholdingback

Inmoves where Iwas X and she was O Inscribed in sheets she'd sewn from
ripped-out
flour sacks.
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SPANISH
La frescura que de las s?banas reci?n bajadas del tendedero me proven?a hac?a pensar en la humedad a?n en ellas; pero cuando tomaba las esquinas me tocaba doblar, en sentido contrario a ella, enderezando que y jalaba en sacudir y la primero el dobladillo y luego agitar diagonal, para despu?s tela como una vela de barco ante vientos cruzados, su respuesta era un golpe sonoro, seco y ondulante. As? estir?bamos y dobl?bamos y junt?bamos los como si nada segundo no hubiera con hubiera nada hab?a pasado, pues pasado que pasado siempre anterioridad, d?a tras d?a, pendiendo de un hilo, de nuevo logrando la cercan?a al detenernos en pasos donde am? me tocaba la y a ella la o, letras inscritas en s?banas que hab?a cosido a partir de costales de harina rasgados. cabos, mano contra mano durante una fracci?n de
Las frescas s?banas del tendedero remit?an a su humedad, acaso; pero al tomar la esquina de mi lado, justo al jalar al contrario, primero en diagonal ajustando y luego con la tela cual vela de un barco
ante vientos cruzados, su ondulado se o?a. Doblar cabos sueltos golpe si nada hubiera pasado: todo haber pues parec?a pasado, s?lo de un hilo al pender, cercan?a, d?a tras d?a hubiera logrado, en m?, en ella o, los trazos, como
s?banas sobre costales de harina.
133
IRISH
PAGES
INMEM?RI?M:
The
ROBERT FITZGERALD
like the squared tomb
socket of each axehead
to a Doorway megalithic With its slabbed passage that forward keeps opening To face another corbelled stone-faced door That opens on a third. There is no last door, Just threshold stone, stone jambs, stone crossbeam
Repeating enter, enter, enter.
Lintel and upright flypast in thedark.
a swallow s note, bowstring sang The arrow whose is itsmark migration Leaves a breath in every socket. whispered test The over, while the gut s still humming, great This time it travels out of all knowing aimed towards the vacant centre. Perfectly After the
134
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IN THE
SPANISH
INMEM?RI?M ROBERT FITZGERALD

La orbita de toda cabeza de hacha es el vano cuadrado de la entrada a una
entra, entra. Dintel ymontante pasan volando en la oscuridad. La cuerda del arco canta la nota de una la flecha cuya golondrina y, despu?s, migraci?n un susurrado aliento en toda ?rbita. Una vez marca su huella la deja pasada la cuerda de tripa tararea, viaja lejos de todo lo gran prueba, mientras consabido, perfectamente dirigida hacia el centro vac?o.
con su t?nel de losas abri?ndose hacia adelante, de cara a tumba megal?tica, a una tercera. No otra ?ltima puerta, puerta voladiza de piedra, que da hay s?lo de umbral, de piedra, de piedra quicial viga piedra, que repiten entra,
?rbita
es el vano y testa del hacha de esta tumba dolm?nica, cuadrado t?nel de losas abri?ndose al claro
hacia otra puerta, como plano a la tercera. ?ltima puerta, s? de piedra hay umbral, quicial, viga hay
entra, entra, entra.
No
repitiendo
Quicio Nota
oscura noche y dintel, de
alerta.
arco en cuerda; golondrina, de la flecha marca un hito, migraci?n un aliento de ?rbita en deja sigilo.
Y mientras esa cuerda tararea,
viaja lejos de todo lo sabido, hacia el centro vac?o. bien dirigida
135
IRISH
PAGES
GLANMORE REVISITED (5,6) from

5. LUSTRAL SONNET
and from entering: early on, Breaking Words that thrilled me farmore than
And still did, when I came intomy as a man of property. Masquerade was never Even then, my first impulse To double-bar a door or lock a gate; And fitted blinds and curtains drawn over Seemed far too self-protective and
they own
scared
uptight.
But I scared
My To saw up the old bed-frame, since the stair Was much too narrow for it.A bad action, so So Greek with consequence, dangerous, secure the house. words and deeds pure Only
when I re-entered here, myself own first breaker-in, with an instruction
136
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IN THE
SPANISH
REGRESO A GLANMORE
5. LUSTRAL
las m?s que asustarme, me Romper y rasgar: desde muy joven, palabras, cuando me enfrent? a mi propia fascinaban... y segu?an haci?ndolo como no fue Incluso entonces, mi primer mascarada propietario. impulso o las nunca o a una tranca candado reja; y las persianas cerradas poner doble demasiado protectoras y autocontenidas. parec?an mi Pero s? que me asust? cuando volv? a entrar propio abrirme paso, aqu?, con instrucciones de un viejo armaz?n de cama, rebajar ya que la escalera era demasiado consecuencias, en cuanto a sus tan acci?n, angosta. Mala griega tan s?lo palabras y obras puras afianzan la casa. peligrosa: cortinas corridas me
tan joven, las Rompe y rasga: palabras m?s que asustarme, s? que me encantaban; sumario rasgar el velo fue ah? el de mi mascarada de propietario. a Pero nunca el primer puerta impulso fue poner tranca, o candado en la reja;
justas persianas, cortinas corridas
autocontenidas me parec?an. Mas mi asust? al rasgar el velo, la advertencia: primer rompe y entra, el armaz?n de la cama con sierra ah?me
no cab?a en la escalera. rebaj?: consecuencia: Mala acci?n, riesgo, griega verbo, obra pura: casa sin desvelo.
137
IRISH
PAGES
6. BEDSIDE READING
The whole at summer trees airier. place Big we waken eye level when ivy creeping been trained out ? in likememories
Stirring And little shoots of Unless You've And they've trained so
now can show their face they long keep their distance. White-mouthed depression Swims out from its shadow like a dolphin With wet, unreadable, unfurtive eyes. I swim inHomer. At last Waken And Is the Odysseus In Book and One
Twenty-three.
Penelope
of the bed bedpost together. trunk of an old olive tree living is their secret. As ours could have been atremble and unsaid.
ivy,
Evergreen,
138
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IN THE
SPANISH
6. LIBRO DE
Todo mucho m?s
CABECERA
ventilado. Enormes ?rboles
a la veraniegos agit?ndose a altura de la vista al despertar, y peque?os brotes de hiedra arrastr?ndose, menos que se les como recuerdos tan a pusieran gu?as de salida, impuestos su distancia. mostrar su rostro y mantener las La gu?as que ya pueden la boca, escapa de su sombra nadando como un depresi?n espumea por sin disimulo. Yo nado en Homero. delf?n de ojos h?medos, En el ilegibles, Libro Veintitr?s. Por fin Odiseo y Un Pen?lope despiertan juntos. poste de la cama es el tronco vivo de un viejo olivo, y tambi?n su secreto. Como el nuestro haber sido la hiedra, siempreviva temblorosa e inefable. pod?a
Viento, ?rboles que empiezan a temblar a la altura de la vista al despertar; invaden brotes de hiedra rastreros si les faltan recuerdos gu?as afuera, gu?as que apenas
tan sometidos a se asoman. La sale nadando
depresi?n espumea, de su sombra, delf?n en fin. de ojos incautos, ilegibles Libro Veintitr?s: Por fin en Homero. yo nado juntos Odiseo
y Pen?lope.
despiertan Un poste de su lecho,
un tronco fresco de un olivo viejo: su secreto. Y el nuestro ser podr?a la tr?mula, inefable siempreviva.
139
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PAGES
THE WALK
and him and her the road, the day, out And took me. When we stepped everywhere they were air Cobbles riverbed, the Sunday A stream-roof thatmoved in silence over high in full bloom, Rhododendrons foxgloves And hemlock, the robin-run-the-hedge, hedge ? and thick shadows With its deckled ivy Until the riverbed itself appeared, with pools, Gravelly, shallowly, summery was a not for rim And made world that crossing. me that far Love the hand, without by brought The doubt or irony, dry-eyed slightest as be damned; And contrary knowledgeable, not Then just kept standing there, letting go. Glamoured
140
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SPANISH
EL SENDERO
Galanura en el camino, el d?a, ?l ella, donde sea me llevaran. Poner que y y eran lecho de r?o, aire pie fuera significaba empedrados que dominguero, techo del arroyo que flu?a en silencio sobre rododendros en flor, dedaleras y sombras de que grava, poco parec?a con sus sus del mundo pozas, que imped?an profundo, veraniego, m?rgenes el cruce. De lamano me llev? el amor tan lejos, sin lamenor duda o iron?a, los ojos secos, ?vidos de sabidur?a, llevando la contraria hasta que ya. Y en adelante me mantuvo en pie, sin soltar nunca. el lecho mismo del r?o y cicuta acu?tica, Hasta gruesas... setos vivos, el seto con sus hierbas barbudas
Es
el camino, ?l y ella galanura y adonde fu?ramos. Pie fuera, lecho eso eran, de r?o, empedrados que dominguero aire, arroyo muy quieto, en flor, dedaleras, los vivos setos, ...
los rododendros cicuta acu?tica, hierbas barbudas Hasta
con sombras muy gruesas que iba emergiendo el mismo lecho
no de grava y profundo: veraniego, sus eran del mundo. pozas m?rgenes tan lejos, De mano del amor llegu? sin duda o iron?a, ojos secos, llevando la contraria, ?vidos, punto. Desde ah? en pie sin soltar me sostuvo.
141
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PAGES
THE GAELTACHT
Iwish, mon vieux, that you and Barlo and I on the Atlantic Drive, back in Rosguill, And that itwas again nineteen-sixty And Barlo was alive
Were
Were
for I believe talking Irish, In that case Aoibheann Marren and Margaret Conway And M. and M. and Deirdre Morton and Niamh there be there as well. And itwould be too great we are now
And Paddy Joe andChips Rafferty andDicky
Would
we could see ourselves, If Could hear what we were In imitation of Dante's, In a boat with Could
if the
saying,
people and if this sonnet
where
he's set free
in it, and Guido, with their Lapo girlfriends be the wildtrack of our above the sea. gabble
142
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SPANISH
EL GAELTACHT
C?mo me t? y Barlo y yo volvi?ramos gustar?a, viejo, que costa del Atl?ntico, y que fuera de nuevo mil novecientos a Rosguill, en la
estuviera vivo, y Paddy Joe, Chips Rafferty y Dicky en irland?s, ser as?, creo, estar?an ah? tambi?n Aoibheann Marren, pues de Y ser?a fabuloso Dierdre Morton y Niamh. Margaret Conway, M., M., vernos a nosotros mismos, tambi?n que que los que somos hoy pudi?ramos escuchar lo que est?bamos diciendo, y que este soneto en imitaci?n pudieran al de Dante, donde se le pone en libertad en un barco junto con Lapo y Guido, sus novias, con todo y cotorreo sobre el mar. fuera tras las salvajes huellas de nuestro
sesenta, y Bario estuvieran ah? hablando
Me
mi
ir contigo y Bario, gustar?a a en el Atl?ntico, viejo, Rosguill, de nuevo en a?os sesenta y t?nticos, y Bario ah?mismo, vi vito y coleando,
con
irland?s, pues de ser as?, sin p?nico, se encontrar?an, de modo epif?nico, Aoibheann, Margaret, M yM al lado, Dierdre Morton
yDicky hablando Paddyy Chips Rafferty
y Niamh. Qu? fabuloso voltear atr?s, que los que hoy somos este soneto aquello oyeran, y
a que pretende seguirle Dante el modo, sus novias a bordo, con Lapo y Guido y al mar se hiciera tras el cotorreo.
143
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PAGES
TRANSLATOR'S
Pura L?pez
NOTE
Colom?
A burnished, surface: a reverberation. reflecting It is in this sense that I have undertaken the honorable Mr Heaney tutelary Shakespeare, expressed it, founder and dweller of the in which our author true poets wish kingdom belongs, a local habitation and name". With his nothing/a regional locus amoenus, his Irish and his English English Irish,Heaney Seamus s work. As one of his
task of
translating spirits, William
English language to "that airy give his word, English has back to given me the confidence I I'd lost inmy own locus amoenus: my Mexican thought or Mexican Spanish Spanish tongue. Ever since I put on paper the first fistful ofwords which I dared to name doubt or irony,dry-eyed/And slightest as be damned" (The that contrary Spirit Level, "TheWalk"), knowledgeable, was this and that I could not feel linguistic territory really mine, anything, use senses in conceive of five thatwould not be there. my any anything, place I believe more in the or than in that is,more in tongue language, Spanish as than in poetry itself,which in order to be uttered English Almighty God, poem, I understood, "without/The sonority of a word a
needs the
like euphoria,with its five unrepeated vowels; needs the semantic of a word like glittering plurality unfathomable. Loving their tongue, "the bastion of sensation", poets must obey the dictum: "Do not waver/Into Do not waver in it" (Seeing Things, "Clearances", language. ).
"The fifth attempt cannot fail", to a in popular saying Mexico. according Sonnets is the fifth book I have tried to render into by Heaney my mother Station after The The the and Island, Seeing Things, tongue, Spirit Level, Light of not I Leaves. with the but with say this slightest arrogance, pride, because ? or whether it contain flaws or finds, this linguistic failings strengths already ? a sublime readers will see them in full color, with pretension complete as a sound and act of smell, taste, touch, sincerely projected simple worship. We have cherished this for I in and to many years, project speak plural include the author of the [Alberto images that accompany the poems Darszon: but an on the He is not the love ofmy life, Portfolio facing page]. only artist who thinks of himself as a unprofessed disciplined student of a sees scientist who himself utmost the with It iswith this nature, objectivity. same that I'd like to salute the of his objectivity tonight subjectivity Continued 144 afterPortfolio see
IN OTHER
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IN THE
SPANISH
art. The artist Barrie Cooke has called my attention to the fact photographic to this, Iwould say that that all great abstract art is also figurative: parallel can result in all objectivity. subjectivity In his Nobel Lecture, Seamus union of Heaney insists upon the necessary content is form and within the poem: "Poetic form both the the ship and and a for the simultaneous anchor. It is at once a buoyancy holding, allowing in and mind and ofwhatever is centripetal centrifugal body. [...] gratification to [...] The form of the poem, in other words, is crucial to poetry's power in of our consciousness of its spite of persuade that vulnerable part Tightness around it" of all the evidence wrongness (Crediting Poetry, 1995). Preserving I have of this expressive both form and content as journey, inseparable parts own that is launched with full sail a compass, perhaps too ship guided by my the winds of my mother needle of the universe carried bold: magnetic by Not those that bear the sounds of the European North, but the tongue. Boreas sibilant sounds of the Latin American South. Thus do the gods slightly in one creative breath for a moment and Auster come together, bilingually,
in time: now.
AUTHOR'S
NOTE
Seamus Heaney is a woman of and stamina, a poet of imaginative L?pez Colom? style a brilliant creature, asYeats have called her. and sweep might staying power, in the and honoured for her Spanish language, original poetry Distinguished ? she is a honour awarded Mexico's couple of years ago highest literary as a translator and I have benefited to the point of equally distinguished her as the one who cared formy work and carried blessed by having being it over to a Mexican audience. Ever since she took it into her head some Pura years ago to translate Station Island, she has worked at the task with all the Once scientist husband at his microscope. of her intensity distinguished a a finder and a Pura focuses and fixes on a purpose or poem, she becomes
She fires up, flares, and follows through. Her literary intelligence is keeper. swift and subtle, her ear full of echoes from poetry inmany languages, but acoustic of She is erudite and sensitive to the literary English. particularly intuitive, she is Keats's chameleon poet, full of negative capability, ready as to have come a translator to take on the of other poets. I am identity lucky to her attention and held it this far.
145
IRISH
PAGES
The
preceding
10 sonnets in English
are
published
courtesy of the author and Faber ScFaber.
One
andyouth in M?rida, capital of thestateof part ofher childhood City in 1952, but also spent
Yucatan. When by she was 12,following her mother's death, Of she was sent to a Catholic period, boarding school run the Benedictine Sisters, in South Dakota. thisAmerican she has written:
Mexico's of
most
distinguished
poets and translators, Pura L?pez
Colom? was born inMexico
was Irish: I owe her to my early enthusiasm and later devotion taught English as well as to Irish in It was there I wrote and my poetry poetry particular. general, first poems, On her translated, perhaps a bit too boldly, some poetry byW.B. Yeats and Patrick Kavanagh." a return toMexico in she took and Latin American after high-school graduation, degree Spanish at the Universidad Literature Nacional Aut?noma de Mexico, subsequently abandoning a critical and translation. She is the devotion to studies essays poetry, postgraduate for full-time "The Sister who in
most authorofnine booh ofpoems, Santo y se?a (Watchword,2008), andReliquia recently

(ftelic,2009), and selections of her poetry have been translated into English by theAmerican
poet
Forrest Gander (No Shelter, Gray wolf Press,2002) and the Irish poet Lorna Shaughnessy (MotherTongue, Salmon,2007).
146

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Si^Pura L?pez Colom?

won fruitborn of a of love. Some 15 of the translationsin Sonetos long-distance labour

GLANMORE SONNETS (I, II, X) from

Of ploughs. My lea isdeeply tilled.

Las vocales vulnerable

araron unas en otras:

de los ?ltimos veinte a?os es tiras de bruma

... Se abren paso entre la bruma:

Grano del sue?o entre nieve pascual.

surco arado y abierto, cual rev?s de un arado cada verso.

Pallid as thedrippingsapling birches.

CLEARANCES (U1,V) from

En tanto los dem?s

Beforehand, dayby day,just touchand go, close Coming againbyholdingback

s?banas sobre costales de harina.

socket of each axehead

Lintel and upright flypast in thedark.

INMEM?RI?M ROBERT FITZGERALD

oscura noche y dintel, de

viaja lejos de todo lo sabido, hacia el centro vac?o. bien dirigida

GLANMORE REVISITED (5,6) from

when I re-entered here, myself own first breaker-in, with an instruction

Stirring And little shoots of Unless You've And they've trained so

tan sometidos a se asoman. La sale nadando

despiertan Un poste de su lecho,

los rododendros cicuta acu?tica, hierbas barbudas Hasta

con sombras muy gruesas que iba emergiendo el mismo lecho

And Paddy Joe andChips Rafferty andDicky

people and if this sonnet

he's set free

sesenta, y Bario estuvieran ah? hablando

yDicky hablando Paddyy Chips Rafferty

translating spirits, William

courtesy of the author and Faber ScFaber.

poets and translators, Pura L?pez

Colom? was born inMexico

most authorofnine booh ofpoems, Santo y se?a (Watchword,2008), andReliquia recently

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