Puerto Rican poet Mara Pastor delivered a poetry reading and discussion to the University of Connecticut community at Susan V. Herbst Hall on April 1.
The event was bilingual, with more emphasis on Spanish than English. Katerina Gonzalez Seligmann, an associate professor in the Department of Literatures, Cultures and Languages, translated some of the Spanish comments into English.
Before the reading began, Seligmann introduced Pastor and her work. Pastor had selected a handful of poems to read from her award-winning anthology “Deuda Natal,” which translates to “Natal Debt” in English. The poems were written in Spanish, but English translations by María José Giménez and Anna Rosenwong made up the second half of the collection.
Many of the poems focused on Pastor’s experiences in Puerto Rico. They blended childhood memories and her current life there, touching on topics like climate change, the housing crisis and the power of language.
Pastor would introduce and read her poems in Spanish, and afterwards, Seligmann read the English translation. The first poem read was “Los Bustos De Martí,” which translates to “The Busts of Martí” in English. In it, Pastor creates the image of different memorials to José Martí, a Cuban poet who helped Cuba earn independence from Spain, all coming to life, confusing the rest of the world.
One recurring idea in Pastor’s poetry is something she calls “the edge” in English. Her poem of the same name delved into the idea, presenting it as a fragile and desirable state of being. Afterwards, Pastor said she was impressed with her translators’ ability to relay ideas between languages, even when they do not share the same words to convey them.
“This is a poem where you see that I have great translators because they’ve handled something that is impossible to manage,” said Pastor.
“They’ve written a totally new poem, which is beautiful. Which is what we always do when we’re translating, it’s just very clear that it’s happened here,” she said.
“Deuda Natal,” or “Natal Debt,” the poem the work is named after, had a hypnotic rhythm when read in both languages. Pastor made use of repetition as she declared what is, what she wants and what will be.
Once Pastor concluded the reading, participants, who were both in-person and online, were invited to ask her questions. The discussion shifted seamlessly between Spanish and English depending on the language the question was asked in. Repeated images in her poems, colonialism and language were frequently addressed in the discussion.
When an online participant asked a question in Spanish, Seligmann translated Pastor’s answer, which provided context for Pastor’s goals with writing.
“You want to bring into your writing the words for things that are becoming extinct in Puerto Rico in relation to fruits and other flora and fauna,” said Seligmann.
In doing this, Pastor helps preserve language, share the characteristics of Puerto Rico and bring attention to the decline of wildlife because of human activities. Preserving language is one of the main goals Pastor wishes to address with her writing, as dominant groups can erase it.
“As a colonial subject, I have realized that we need to stand against losing language and also losing the capacity of abstraction,” said Pastor.
One of the final questions for Pastor was about the work of translation and whether she still viewed the English translations of her poems as her own.
Pastor responded by saying the poems still felt like hers, as the translators retained the essence of her work. However, she said they can feel different when she reads them, giving a sense of “language dysphoria.”
“We are different versions of ourselves in every poem, in every language and in every poem,” said Pastor.
“But in every language we speak, we are different versions of ourselves. We don’t express ourselves in the same way in our mother tongue or our native language, and you might relate to this, the way we express ourselves,” she said.