I first came across Malén in a video of her reading a poem about being a lonely Argentinian in New York. I thought this was cool since I was a lonely New Yorker in Argentina. I thought, "I should meet this person some day." I still haven't met her in person. I read a lot of stuff on her blog a few months ago. I went to the release of her latest book, Looking Up Drugs On Wikipedia (Buscar drogas en wikipedia) and didn't talk to her because, since I stopped drinking, all I want to do in social situations is stand in the corner and act like I'm not having a panic attack. But I liked her reading enough to want to do my first column of translating non-male-identified authors with a work of hers. I tried to buy the book two times but it was "sold out",then I rememberedthis piece that appeared on Playground a few weeks ago and it felt perfect, since this is especially one of those nights where I would prefer a flattened computer existence to my real life. The strength of this poem is its unembellished honesty. Dramatic overtures about love and loss seem unnecessary, and would come across as trying too hard.Complicated emotions are best stated directly. Malén shows a restraint, a directness, a subtle control of flow that give her work a rare depth.With this piece I like to imagine that if I put the original through Google Translate, it would come out almost identical to the translation below. It's a miracle situation where the meaning would not get lost because the meaning is said so precisely. I like to imagine that it would come out perfect in any language, that even though the narrator is resigned to loneliness, there is a desire to communicate, and even if the brain is not the computer, it is still sending out a message that can be received by anyone.
Frustrated by my almost complete lack of knowledge of Latin American literature, I set out to study the literary tradition and its correlating historical and cultural contexts in order to process and distill a large amount of information into an easily-digestible survey. Aware of the dangers of canonization and its inherent nature of exclusion, not to mention the actual parameters of the region, encompassing 20 countries and over 500 existing languages (not to mention dialects), I want to say, as a disclaimer, that the purpose of this project is to simply introduce Spanish-language Latin American poetry to an English-speaking audience, thus constructing a foundation to build upon and fill in over time. To say least, I feel like I've only scratched the surface.
Over the course of the next year, we're going to open the floodgates with poetry from Latin America. Last year, we launched OOMPH as more of an idea than a press, but after spending a year settling in Buenos Aires, improving our Spanish, and crafting our purpose as a journal, we're ready to hit the ground running.
It's been nearly a month since OOMPH's collaboration with the Letters Festival in Atlanta, and although there were some technical difficulties, overall I think it was a huge success. Those in Atlanta were able to hear Argentine poets Juan Salzano and Daniela Regert read their work, and Buenos Aires got a taste of Atlanta poets Bruce Covey and Amy McDaniel. There were some audio troubles on our end but Bruce and Amy's readings were projected live while Alex Gregor and I read their work from a fluid setlist prepared beforehand, in case of such an emergency. Each respective venue was packed and attendees received a pamphlet featuring side-by-side translations of selected poems from each reader. None of this would have been possible without the help of Scott Daughtridge and Stephanie Dowda, who curate the Letters Festival and the Lost in the Letters reading series, and those who attended the readings; also, Alex and Evan Leed's work translating the poems included in the pamphlet, and Irene Loewy's contributions and thoughtful advice. Additionally, we'd like to thank Noland Bo Chaliha for helping us with our website over the past few months. Below is a .pdf of what was handed out, along with an embedded text. We want to extend our gratitude to Juan, Daniela, Bruce and Amy for working with us to get these poems translated, it was very much a collaborative effort. I'm writing this so Alex doesn't have to thank himself, because I think he's too humble to do so and would purposely overlook it. However, both of us, and a ton of other people, worked very hard on this project and we're excited to present these poems to you.
