Task and Vacations

By Jorgenrique Adoumtrans. Katherine M. Hedeen and Víctor Rodríguez Núñez

to be being —but deeprooted— and find the trace of our own toes from our own steps and not hide the other made for us in parts with signs ID card 251/99/7 anobody voting the who-does-he-think-he-is guy poorguy the one who’s changed so much

to go on being —if you could— honest intact like an animal or at least not fall into respectable citizen the one who has it all figured out (the heartjunk in the bottom drawer) or the one who only demands what he’s given or the one who only loves what he should or the one who has never been alone with all his halves and to take a break from yourself wake up all at once occupying your nothingness stuck in your demanning as if you were hindu and died and it was true that you come back as a lizard spider dwarf normal-like-everyone-else wellbehaved oddball cadaver burglars by phone talking about some bones sent in the mail and to be the addressee get them back whole like you had them with all my musing splinters with my dear problematic nails and then to forgive myself (even though I laughed so hard) for having gone and left myself waiting

Prepoemas en postespañol y otros poemas // prepoems in postspanish and other poems

For the rest of my life, I will be grateful to these translators! Jorgenrique Adoum has an extraordinary landscape for us to meet, explore “in the subsoul or the dislife” and to know poets, poetry, as new all over again. The strength of poetry has never been more evident!

—CA Conrad, author of While Standing in Line for Death

 

Jorgenrique Adoum, widely-recognized as the most important Ecuadorian intellectual of the twentieth century, was an award-winning poet, novelist, essayist, and playwright. Of Lebanese descent, he was born in the Andean town of Ambato in 1926. During his lifetime, he published 14 books of poetry. He belonged to a pioneering and yet often overlooked group of Spanish American poets known as “conversacionalistas.” who emphasize the orality of language, make use of the languages of the social sciences and mass media, and innovate by challenging poetic limits and by requiring an active reader, one considered a co-author. Adoum spent much of the sixties, seventies, and eighties in exile, mainly in Paris, returning to Ecuador in 1987, where he continued to write. He died in Quito in 2009 and is buried at the Chapel of Man, the museum and cultural center created by his friend, the outstanding visual artist, Oswaldo Guayasamín.

Katherine M. Hedeen’s latest translations include prepoems in postspanish and other poems by Jorgenrique Adoum (Action Books) and from a red barn by Víctor Rodríguez Núñez (co•im•press). She is a Professor of Spanish at Kenyon College, a Managing Editor of Action Books, and the Poetry in Translation Editor at the Kenyon Review. More info: www.katherinemhedeen.com

Víctor Rodríguez Núñez (Havana, 1955) is one of Cuba’s most outstanding and celebrated contemporary writers, with over fifty collections of his poetry published throughout the world. He has been the recipient of major awards in the Spanish-speaking region, including, in 2015, the coveted Loewe Prize. His selected poems have been translated into over a dozen languages. His latest book in English translation is from a red barn (tr. K. Hedeen, co•im•press, 2020). He divides his time between Gambier, Ohio, where he is a Professor of Spanish at Kenyon College, and Havana, Cuba. More info: www.victorrodrigueznunez.com

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