{"id":303676,"date":"2016-03-09T16:17:13","date_gmt":"2016-03-09T16:17:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wdev.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent-dev\/2016\/03\/09\/preparing-to-read-diorama-by-rocio-ceron-rtwbc\/"},"modified":"2018-04-16T14:57:25","modified_gmt":"2018-04-16T14:57:25","slug":"preparing-to-read-diorama-by-rocio-ceron-rtwbc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/College\/translation\/threepercent\/2016\/03\/09\/preparing-to-read-diorama-by-rocio-ceron-rtwbc\/","title":{"rendered":"Preparing to Read "Diorama" by Roc\u00edo Cer\u00f3n [RTWBC]"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yesterday I wrote a long preview<\/a> of Han Kang’s The Vegetarian<\/em>, the Reading the World Book Club fiction book for March. Today, I’m switching over to our poetry selection—Diorama<\/i> by Roc\u00edo Cer\u00f3n, translated from the Spanish by Anna Rosenwong (Phoneme Media.) <\/p>\n

As always, you can post your thoughts and opinions about all of the RTWBC<\/span> books in the comments section below, on Twitter using the hashtag #RTWBC, or at the Facebook Group.<\/a><\/p>\n

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Anna Rosenwong’s Introduction<\/b><\/p>\n

Anna’s introduction to Diorama<\/em> might not put all readers at ease, but I think it’s worth quoting from here because it does provide a couple suggestions for how to approach the collection: <\/p>\n

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Translating Roc\u00edo Cer\u00f3n’s Diorama<\/em> was at first baffling. As an experienced translator and as a less than conventional poet myself, I know better than to seek clarity or narrative or concrete structure in experimental poetry. Nonetheless, it is precisely this sort of legibility that readers often demand of translated work, which can result in selection bias; difficult, experimental, or what Cole Swenson calls “immanent” poetry is often left untranslated in favor of the more familiar and legible. Diorama<\/em> is not plainly legible. It is essentially impressionistic, stubbornly elusive, and at times outright hallucinatory.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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To get closer to this book, I found I needed—and I urge the reader—to set aside notions of tractability and surrender to its associative and auditory insights. So much of reading and translating poetry is training your ear to the text’s private language, particularly in a text like this, where sound often provides the surest foothold amid the rush of cascading images. This emphasis on sound is demonstrated by Cer\u00f3n’s enveloping, fierce live performances, and perceptive readers may find much to gain by putting the book down and trying the lines aloud for themselves, attentive not only to sound and rhythm but to the play and gripping of words in the mouth. In its repetitions, its incantations, its subtle and unexpected linguistic linkages, this is work that demands to be spoken and heard.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

An Example<\/b><\/p>\n

The book opens with “13 Ways to Inhabit a Corner,” which is made up of thirteen short pieces. (Obviously.) Here are two of them:<\/p>\n

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I<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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Ostriches in flight—there are women whose words are ash trees.<\/i> Shadows stitch together harbors of air. In the midst of the stampede, a hand rests on the arc of a kneecap. Cigar and smoke. Rosy cypress sleep. The scent reaches far beyond the border. From the bureau—power, smile destroyed\/ocher temptation, strophic enjambed body. Vestibule.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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XII<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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Jubilation and adoration in parentheses. Above the long hair of that woman, seen in Baden-Baden, a galaxy hangs. No satellite rings. No saintly crown. Aftershock.<\/em> Pealing bells (no ecclesiastical province) whisper a half-truth. White and cracked. The lips. We need a new password to get back to the world in time. While the word appears, she draws a spiral in the water. Resplendence.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Anna mentioned section “XII<\/span>” in her intro stating, “To her translator, it appears that Diorama<\/em> is Cer\u00f3n’s attempt to find or forge that password.” Which is intriguing to me.<\/p>\n

The Sounds of the Poems<\/b><\/p>\n

Going back to Anna’s suggestion to listen to the poems, to read them aloud, here are two videos that give you a sense of what the poem sounds<\/em> like.<\/p>\n