John Berger, on narrative / Acerca del relato

We are both storytellers. Lying on our backs, we look up at the night sky. This is where stories began, under the aegis of that multitude of stars which at night filch certitudes and sometimes return them as faith. Those who first invented and then named the constellations were storytellers. Tracing an imaginary line between a cluster of stars gave them an image and an identity. The stars threaded on that line were like events threaded on a narrative. Imagining the constellations did not of course change the stars, nor did it change the black emptiness that surrounds them. What it changed was the way people read the night sky.

From And Our Faces, My Heart, Brief as Photos, Vintage International.

Ambos somos narradores. Acostados boca arriba, miramos el cielo nocturno. Aquí es donde empezaron las historias, bajo la tutela de esa multitud de estrellas que en la noche escamotean certezas y, a veces, las devuelven como fe. Aquellos que primero inventaron y luego nombraron las constelaciones eran narradores. Al trazar una línea imaginaria entre un manojo de estrellas les brindaron imagen e identidad. Las estrellas enhebradas en esa línea fueron acontecimientos enhebrados en un relato. Imaginar las constelaciones, por cierto, no cambió las estrellas, ni el vacío negro que las rodea; lo que cambió fue cómo leemos el cielo nocturno.

De Y nuestros rostros, mi vida, breves como fotos. Hermann Blume. Pueden encontrar una traducción del libro en este blog.

Two poems by Irene Gruss (Argentina, 1950), my translation / Dos poemas de IG

The Rite


Pick up your things

your firm thighs, the basket loaded

to the brim, everything that keeps

the water cool and the milk hot,

everything put away already out of place;

wrap your kids from the cold and the

twilight, pick up

the chairs, the details, and

let the sea talk with me.

The varicose veins of old women,

either sufferers or fighters or satisfied with

what they have done in the end with their lives,

collect them,

just as men collect odds and ends from their

hoop nets,

those who fish with nets, and the

indomitable who carry their lines far, far away;

pick up, dark men of

such blond body hair, the tents,

tie the ropes with a lament that sounds like

I haven't set sail, today either, and let the

sea talk with me.

Children deafened by your sound routine,

pick up your games, look once again toward the beach,
go back,
go back home,
to monotony, to details.
Silent couples, get up and walk

for the moon to corrupt the mouth of

each, the breast of every one,

make the waters finally open

just like that,

pick up and run

pleasantly, carefully

from the twilight,

from the barren foam remaining on the shore,

and let the sea chat with me.


From La mitad de la verdad, bajo la luna editorial, 2008.

Amiable Music at Last

Because the leaves on that small tree still shine

I envision, there, far away, the enchanted summer forest.

I'd even rush the night

for little critters to bathe everything in amiable music, at last,

songs laughing at the graveness of the sea, there, nearby,

as the poor laugh,

as cicadas and crickets and the

frogs laugh at the sea, there, far away,

when it is summer still.

From Música amable al fin, mágicas naranjas ediciones, 2012

You can find a translation of Irene Gruss's poem "El té" in Jorge Aulicino's blog, Otra iglesia es imposible.

El rito

Levanten sus cosas,
sus muslos firmes, el canasto cargado
hasta el tope, todo para mantener
el agua fresca y caliente la leche,
todo guardado fuera de lugar ya;
cubran a sus niños del frío
y del ocaso,
levanten las reposeras, los detalles,
y dejen hablar al mar conmigo.
Las várices de las viejas
sufrientes o luchadoras o satisfechas
por lo que han hecho al cabo con sus vidas,
recójanlas
así como los hombres recogen menudencias
de su mediomundo,
esos que pescan con red,
y los bravíos que llevan el sedal lejos, lejos;
levanten,
hombres morenos de vellos tan rubios, las carpas,
aten las sogas con un lamento parecido a
hoy  no me he hecho a la mar, tampoco hoy, y dejen hablar
al mar conmigo.
Chicos aturdidos por su rutina sonora,
levanten sus juegos, miren una vez más hacia la playa,
vuelvan,
vuelvan al hogar,
a la montonía, a los detalles.
Parejas silenciosas, levántense a caminar,
a que la luna corrompa
la boca de cada cual,
el pecho de cada uno,
hagan que las aguas por fin se abran,
como si nada,
levanten y huyan
amable, cuidadosamente
del ocaso,
de la espuma estéril que queda en la orilla,
y dejen conversar al mar conmigo.



Música amable al fin

Porque las hojas de ese arbolito brillan todavía,
imagino, allá lejos, el bosque encantado de verano.
Hasta apuraría la noche, a que el bicherío inunde todo de música amable, al fin,
canto que se ríe de lo grave del mar, allá, a pocos pasos,
como el pobre se ríe,
como las chicharras y los grillos
y los sapos se ríen del mar, allá, lejos,
cuando es verano todavía. 

Pueden encontrar poemas de Irene Gruss en su blog Casta diva.

Flannery O'Connor, from "Writing Short Stories / Flannery O'Connor, de su ensayo "Escribir cuentos"

When you can state the theme of a story, when you can separate it from the story itself, then you can be sure the story is not a very good one. The meaning of a story has to be embodied in it, has to be made concrete in it. A story is a way to say something that can't be said any other way, and it takes every word in the story to say what the meaning is. You tell a story because a statement would be inadequate. When anybody asks what a story is about, the only proper thing is to tell him to read the story. The meaning of fiction is not abstract meaning, but experienced meaning, and the purpose of making statements about the meaning of a story is only to help you to experience that meaning more fully.

The essay may be found in Mystery and Manners.

Si se puede enunciar el tema de un cuento, si puede separarse del cuento mismo, entonces es seguro que el cuento no es muy bueno. El significado de un cuento debe estar encarnado en él, debe ser plasmado en él. Un cuento es una manera de decir algo que no puede ser dicho de ninguna otra manera, y hacen falta todas las palabras del cuento para decir qué quiere decir. Contamos un cuento porque una afirmación sería insuficiente. Cuando alguien pregunta de qué se trata un cuento, la única respuesta apropiada es decirle que lo lea. El significado de la ficción no es abstracto sino vivenciado, y el propósito de hacer afirmaciones acerca de él no es más que ayudarnos a vivenciar ese significado más plenamente.

Pueden encontrar una versión en español del ensayo en este blog.

Subject/Verb Agreement

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I would like to devote one last post to this topic in order to discuss a few more sentences that may pose a challenge: sentences where the subject is a collective noun or a word that indicates a portion; where two subjects are connected by "either... or" or "neither... nor"; or where there is a predicative expression that includes a noun.  

Collective nouns

Collective nouns are used to refer to a group of living beings or things. Depending on the sentence, they may take a singular or plural verb. If the members of the group are considered as a whole, the verb should be singular; if they are considered as individuals, the verb should be plural.

The jury has made a unanimous decision.

The cast are having trouble remembering their lines.

Words that indicate portions

To determine whether fractions and words such as percent, majority, all, none, and some must be followed by a singular or plural verb, look at the noun in the prepositional phrase that follows them. If the noun in the prepositional phrase (the object of the preposition) is singular, the verb should be singular. If the noun is plural, the verb should be plural.

Three quarters of the cake is gone.

Three quarters of the residents have voted.

"Either... or" and "Neither... nor"

When two singular subjects are connected by "either... or" or "neither... nor," the verb is singular.

Neither Jane nor I likes strawberries.

Yet when one of the subjects is plural, the number will depend on which subject is closest to the verb. If the nearest subject is singular, the verb will be singular. If the nearest subject is plural, the verb will be plural.

Either Robert or his siblings have to straighten that room today.

Neither his friends nor he knows how to get there.

Predicate nominals

A predicate nominal (noun) is part of a predicative expression. Predicative expressions describe or identify the subject and usually follow verbs such as "to be," "to seem," or "to appear." The problem arises when the subject is singular and the predicate noun is plural. In this case the verb must agree with the subject, not with the predicate noun, even if the sentence sounds a bit awkward. It is always possible to rewrite the sentence to get rid of the awkwardness.

What this essay needs is shorter paragraphs.

A poem by Cristián Cruz (Chile, 1973), my translation / Un poema de Cristián Cruz

Flapping Wings

These words I say to you

carry the dying faith of hospices

the sacred light that cracked the evening.

Don’t believe anything I say

I disturbed things slightly so that

you’d enter confused into these pages.

May the violent makeup of suicide not hurt us

Nothing is relinquished on the first try

Not even these mongrel words flapping their wings.

 

Batiendo alas

Estas palabras que te digo / llevan la fe moribunda de los hospicios / la sagrada luz que ha quebrado la tarde. / No me creas nada / yo he desordenado un poco las cosas / para que tú entres confundido en estas páginas. / Que no nos duela el maquillaje violento del suicidio / Nada se entrega a la primera / Ni siquiera estas palabras chuscas batiendo alas.

He has published, among others, Fervor del regreso (2002) and La fábula y el tedio (2003).

Publicó, entre otros, Fervor del regreso (2002) y La fábula y el tedio (2003). Pueden encontrar algunos de sus poemas aquí.

Paul Valéry on Stéphane Mallarmé / Valéry sobre Mallarmé

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Je me répresentais son expectative: l'âme, tendue en direction des harmoniques et concentré à percevoir l'événement d'un mot dans l'univers des mots, où elle se perd à appréhender l'ordre total des liaisons et des résonnances q'une pensée anxieuse de naître invoque...

Me imaginaba su expectativa: el alma extendida hacia los armónicos y concentrada en percibir el acontecimiento de una palabra en el universo de las palabras, donde se pierde aprehendiendo el orden total de conexiones y resonancias que un pensamiento ávido de nacer invoca...

I pictured his expectation: his soul, stretched toward the overtones and focused on perceiving the event of a word in the universe of words, where it loses itself grasping the entire order of connections and resonances invoked by a thought eager to be born...

Publicado originalmente como prefacio a una antología de poemas de Mallarmé, y luego en Varieté III. Pueden encontrar el ensayo en De Poe a Mallarmé. Ensayos de poética y estética, pero esta traducción es mía. Parece haber una versión algo diferente del ensayo en francés.

Published originally as a preface to a collection of Mallarmé's poetry, and later in Varieté III. You can find the passage in French in this essay by Fernando Gil in the journal Lampe-tempête. I haven't been able to find an English edition of the essay.

Subject/Verb Agreement

In a previous post we talked about tricky cases of subject/verb agreement. Here are some more:

Singular pronouns require singular verbs, no matter what follows the pronoun

Another, anybody, anyone, anything, either, everyone, neither, no one, nobody, somebody, someone are all singular, and are hence  followed by a singular verb.

Each of the students has brought a morning snack.

Neither of the brothers is willing to make peace.

Theoretically, "none" must always be followed by a singular verb

Despite the movement of the plain, none of the passengers was frightened. 

Yet many grammarians believe that we should follow current usage. We can, therefore, use the plural in certain cases. According to Strunk and White, for instance, if "none" means "no one" or "not one" (not a single one), the verb is singular:

 

None of the children has played with the ball today. 

If the focus is on the group and "none" means "not any," then the verb is plural:

None of the students are carrying their backpacks today. 
Expressions introduced by "as well as," "including," "in addition to," "along with," and "together with" in compound subjects should be written between commas and do not determine the number of the verb. The latter must agree with the noun that is not part of the expression.

Lisa, along with her mother and sisters, goes shopping every Saturday.

And the last one for today: Nouns that are plural in form but singular in meaning require singular verbs. Some examples are mathematics, demographics, and dynamics.

The dynamics of their relationship changes constantly.

Two poems by Antonio Cisneros, my translation / Dos poemas de Antonio Cisneros

Berlin Nocturne

The pollen of the young larches sails amid the red-brick-colored night
(the pollen of hay fever).
Like snow it travels in whirlwinds but has plumages and gets
entangled in the steeped corollas of the female larches and grazes at whim.
They are the so-called ways of life and (with scant excitement) of love;
delight of laziness in summer (Parma ham I remember you).
I put out  my cigarette, clear my throat and open the window / packed with red air and fresh pollen.
Warm and tame the breeze, oil lamp lit, the sheet rumpled.
A fly larger than a pigeon rests on my shoulder.


Requiem (2)

 Hans Stephan, in memoriam

Not the side wall or the white sky,
the grubs in the back
and the rue, so dense. No to the
end of all visions.
Not the slice of lemon in the swamps
or the stink of carbide.
Not the flabby wobble of mosquitoes
where the jungle starts,
and the great confusion.
Rather the beloved face,
those small pores, beach skin
and the sparkling of brine in the west.
A very light air - no fry food -
the bed well made,
the knees roomy,
the blanket slight and cool.
The short nails of the beloved hand
on the terrified back of the flocks.
Kyrie eleison
Christie eleison
Kyrie eleison.
A deer, blue and calm like ice,
be the certainty of resurrection.


From Propios como ajenos. Una antología personal Lima: Editorial Inca.
Some of his poetry has been published in English: Spider Hangs too Far from the Ground and At Night the Cats



Nocturno de Berlín

El polen de los jóvenes alerces navega entre la noche color rojo-ladrillo / (el mismo polen de la fiebre del heno) / Como la nieve viaja en remolinos pero tiene plumajes y se enreda / en las corolas remojadas de los alerces-hembra y pasta a su placer. / Son los llamados modos de la vida y (con poco entusiasmo) del amor. / Delicias de perezas en verano (jamoncito de Parma te recuerdo). / Apago el cigarrillo, carraspeo y abro la ventana/repleta de aire rojo y polen fresco. / Tibia y mansa la brisa, encendido el candil, la sábana revuelta. / Una mosca mayor que una paloma se posa en mi hombro.


Requiem (2)  In memoriam Hans Stephan

No el muro lateral ni el cielo blanco, / los gorgojos al fondo, / y la ruda tan densa. No al final / de todas las visiones. / No el gajo de limón en los pantanos / ni el tufo de carburo. / No el fofo bamboleo del mosquito / donde empieza la selva / y la gran confusión. / Más bien el rostro amado, / esos poros pequeños, piel de playa / y brillos de salmuera en el poniente. / Un aire muy ligero, sin frituras / la cama bien tendida, / las rodillas holgadas, / la manta leve y fresca. / Las uñas cortas de la mano amada / sobre el lomo de pavor de los rebaños. / Kyrie eleison / Christie eleison / Kyrie eleison. / Un ciervo azul y calmo como el hielo / sea certeza de la resurección.

Aquí pueden encontrar el prólogo del autor a Propios como ajenos.

Salman Rushdie on translation / SR, sobre la traducción

The word 'translation' comes, etymologically, from the Latin for 'bearing across'. Having been borne across the world, we are translated men. It is normally supposed that something always gets lost in translation; I cling, obstinately, to the notion that something can also be gained.

From Imaginary Homelands. London: Granta Books. You can read more about the book here.

La palabra "traducción" deriva etimológicamente del latín: "llevar de un lugar al otro". En tanto fuimos llevados de un lugar al otro del mundo, somos seres traducidos. Se supone habitualmente que algo siempre se pierde en la traducción. Yo me aferro obstinadamente a la idea de que algo también se puede ganar.

No encontré edición en español, solo en portugués. Si les interesa, les paso el dato.

Subject/Verb Agreement

 

The general rule for subject-verb agreement is that in any sentence, the verb or the auxiliary must agree with the subject in person and number. Yet before making decisions about person and number, we must make sure that we have the right subject. This may be difficult when subject and verb are separated by prepositional phrases (phrases introduced by prepositions), direct objects, or dependent clauses (clauses that cannot stand by themselves as sentences and are introduced by pronouns, adverbs, etc.).

A prepositional phrase following the subject does not determine the number of the verb

One of the boys is wearing a red shirt.

We must be careful not to confuse a direct object with the subject of the sentence. 

Combating spam, malware, and attacks on the network has been a concern of the Internet community for years.
 
Nouns that are part of a dependent clause cannot be the subject of the sentence.

The artist who paints street musicians, vendors, and beggars captures the real vibe of a city.