Friday, October 20, 2006

Bilingual readings, Latin American, Friday afternoon

bilingual readings, ALTA conference
Rhonda Dahl Buchanan, a dynamic & witty speaker, lets us know a little bit about Ana María Shua, "The Queen of Short Shorts". We're the first to get a sneak peek at the scandalously short shorts from Quick Fixes! It's so hot that Rhonda takes off her jacket!

More short shorts from Casa de Geishas; some Quickies, or "texticulos". (!1!!)

Rhonda dedicates "Beware of Women" to the reading organizer, Alexis, who just came in... Everyone cracks up!

I'll never be able to read Shua without hearing her in Rhonda's voice!

Next up, Gary Racz translating Manuel Gonzalez Prada's witty epigrams or grafitos in which he makes fun of many targets, including religious figures, The Bible, ponderous and pompous writers, and anti-semitism. "It's easier to be a God / than make it as a carpenter." And one to St. Augustine "With two mere Latin tags, you proved / the antipodes did not exist..." and to Thomas Aquinas: "His works, once thought to harbor gold / like some ... Himayalan peak..." All in meter and rhyme and quite engaging. Gary comments on what it was like to write in hexameter. I enjoyed the couplets on Cervantes - rhyming "Cervantes" y "pedantes", so we're all laughing by the very first line. Baudelaire: hey! Gonzalez Prada actually likes someone.

Alicia Zavala Galvan reads from her translations of Alfonsina Storni and Carilda Oliver Labra. Storni - "Miedo", 1919. "Engaño", 1925. "Uno" 1935. Her translation of Oliver Labra's "If they knock" was great.

Trudy Balch's translations of Gabriela (Gaby) Brimmer - who could not speak and who typed on an electric typewriter with her big toe. This text is like a dialogue between 3 women - Gaby, her mother, and Florencia (or Nani), Gaby's caregiver.







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