The Ofi Press Magazine
International Poetry and Literature from Mexico City
Poems by Ulalume González de León (Uruguay)
Translations by Terry Ehret (USA), Nancy J. Morales (USA) and John Johnson (USA)
Published in The Ofi Press issue 49
Telegramas para Jorge/ Telegrams for Jorge
| Telegramas para Jorge
1. (Proyecto- Wittgenstein)
“Compartamos kilómetros de disparates…”
2. (Al amigo poeta)
Tienes la edad del mundo y ni un minuto menos. Pero te ves más joven.
3. (En que pido posada)
Estar sola es perder el sitio, andar a la intemperie. Dame un aquí en tu cuerpo.
4. (Tu amiga atolondrada)
En mi prisa por crecer eché alas y raíces: qué voy a hacer?
5. (Contra el frío)
Amigo desnudo: te voy a escribir un poema envolvente.
6. (Marvell)
Let us roll all our strength and all Our sweetness up into one ball | Telegrams for Jorge
1. (Project- Wittgenstein)
“Let’s share miles of nonsense…”
2. (To my poet friend)
You are as old as the world and not one minute less. But you look younger.
3. (In which I ask for shelter)
To be alone is to lose one’s place, to wander in the elements. Give me shelter here in your body.
4. (Your scatterbrained friend)
In my hurry to grow I shed wings and roots: what am I going to do?
5. (Against the cold)
Naked friend: I’m going to write a poem to cover you..
6. (Marvell)
Let us roll all our strength and all Our sweetness up into one ball |
Brull nonsense/ Brull nonsense
Brull nonsense
Se parte en dos el silencio la luz se vuelve al revés, y sin manos, van las manos a buscar quién sabe qué, y en el minuto de nadie pasa lo que nunca fue… | Brull nonsense
The silence breaks in two, the light turns upside down, and hands-free, the hands go searching for who knows what, and in the minute of nobody that which never was happens… |
Cielo entero/ Entire sky
Cielo entero
Un pájaro corta el viento o el tiempo
El vértigo en mí que no tengo alas pero invento pájaros
Cada uno pone la mitad del cielo | Entire sky
A bird cuts through wind or time
A giddiness in me that I have no wings but invent birds
Each one wearing half the sky |
Viejo y palabras
Ya no puedo inventar el mundo solo: voy a morirme en mí con mis palabras, un ramo seco ni siquiera bueno para el más chirle té. Agotado su jugo jeroglífico.
Estoy viejo. La prueba: ya no puedo arrojar una palabra búmerang que regrese cargada de otredad. | Old and words
I can no longer invent the world alone: I am going to die in myself with my words, a dry branch not even good for the most insipid tea. Its hieroglyphic sap exhausted.
I am old. The proof: I can no longer hurl a boomerang word that returns charged with otherness. |
| Acibernética
No no nos respondíamos
Las preguntas lanzadas rebotaban y volvían distintas casi irreconocibles pájaros migratorios siempre otros
Podíamos usarlas en seguir preguntando | Acybernetic
No we were not responding
The hurled questions kept bouncing back and returning different almost unrecognizable migratory birds always others
We could use them to keep asking
|
About the Poet and Translators
Poet
Ulalume González de León was a poet, essayist, and translator of remarkable intelligence and invention. She was born in 1932 in Montevideo, Uruguay, the daughter of Roberto Ibáñez and Sara de Ibáñez. Her parents gave her the incantatory name Ulalume, inspired by the poetry of Edgar Allen Poe and the musical names of African-Caribbean ocean deities. At an early age, she was introduced to many poets and intellectuals who were guests in her parents’ home, among them Pablo Neruda, Octavio Paz, Gabriela Mistral, and Juan Ramón Jiménez.
She studied at a French lycée, and, by the time she was fifteen, had earned a government scholarship to study literature and philosophy at the Sorbonne in Paris, finishing her studies at the University of Mexico. In the 1960’s and 70’s in Latin America, she was an inspirational leader of a generation of women writers experimenting with language and challenging the traditional identities of women, marriage, and relationships. She published essays, stories, and poems, and worked on the editorial boards of the journals Plural and Vuelta, under the direction of Octavio Paz. She also translated the work of Elizabeth Bishop, Ted Hughes, Lewis Carroll, and e.e. cummings.
González de León’s poetry earned her many awards, including the Xavier Villaurrutia Prize, the Flower of Laura Poetry Prize in 1979 (the Center for International Studies) and Alfonso X Prize. Recognizing the visionary quality of her work, Octavio Paz called González de León “the best Mexican poet since Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz.” She died in 2009 of respiratory failure and complications of Alzheimer’s at the age of 77.
Translators
Terry Ehret has an M.A. in Creative Writing and is one of the founders of Sixteen Rivers Press. She has published four collections of poetry, most recently Night Sky Journey from Kelly’s Cove Press. Her first collection, Lost Body (Copper Canyon Press, 1990), was inspired by González de León’s work and was selected by Carolyn Kizer for the National Poetry Series. Other awards include the California Book Award, the Pablo Neruda Poetry Prize, a nomination for the Northern California Book Reviewer’s Award, and five Pushcart Prize nominations. From 2004 to 2006, she served as the poet laureate of Sonoma County, California, where she lives and teaches writing.
Nancy J. Morales, a first-generation Puerto Rican American, earned her B.A. from Rutgers College, an M.A. in teaching English as a Second Language from Adelphi University, and a Ph.D. in education from Teachers College at Columbia University. She has taught Spanish language and literature at Dominican University, the College of Marin, and Sonoma State University.
John Johnson is an award-winning poet whose work has appeared in many print and online journals, including BOXCAR Poetry Review, Clade Song, Triggerfish Critical Review, and Web Conjunctions. He has been studying Spanish language and literature with Colors of Spanish in Petaluma, and letterpress printing with Iota Press of Sebastopol, producing chapbooks and bilingual broadsides.