ecc-poetry:“Tenochtitlan,” by Elisa Chavez.Leí que los Mexica ahogaban a muj
ecc-poetry:“Tenochtitlan,” by Elisa Chavez.Leí que los Mexica ahogaban a mujeresde cercanos pueblos para apaciguara la diosa de las lluvias.Su templo mayor tenía dosestantes de cráneos.Mis antepasados que adoraban al solmantenían a sus dioses cerca,escuchando a sus voces rapaces.En sus nombres, perpetrabanmaravillas y atrocidades.No debe sorprender entoncesque los pueblos a fuera de Tenochtitlanle daron la bienvenida a cualquieraprometiera un final al sol cruel,las flores mentirosas, las aguas pavimentadas con los huesos de tributas.El dios de los Hispanos fue el oro,y él les mandó a quemar Tenochtitlan,enviándola para reunirse conlas doncellas ahogadas.Cortes’ men thought the Mexica’sfloating city must be a dream:stone temples jutting from the water,voracious bright gardensand grand estates.My sun-worshipping ancestorskept their gods close,heeded their rapt whispers.In their names, they built marvelouscanals and walked on the waters.It shouldn’t then surprisethat artists have tried to recaptureTenochtitlan, brooding on the dreamjournals of Spaniards: they imagine her bright causeways, the lush gardens paving her streets like enchantments.The Spanish, steely god-mongersthat they were, knew wellhow to deal with enchantment:They burned Tenochtitlan to ash. Is this translation inaccurate? You bet! Miss Translated is a meditation on culture, identity, and the things that get lost in translation by Elisa Chavez. To support this project, check out my Patreon. I finally edited this piece to fix (some of) the grammar whoopsies! And to bring it in line with the Spanish-left English-right layout I’ve ended up doing for basically all the Miss Translated poems as the years’ve gone on.P.S. From the reblogs, have some deep thoughtful commentary that made me yell to myself:#poetry#oh i love this an awful lot#the english version has a dreamy romanticised tone#whereas the spanish one is more nuanced#which is interesting#because on one side people forget/don’t know that tenochtitlan was a big city indeed believed to be a dream#on the other many don’t know that it was the capital of an empire and not a specially benevolent one#so each version strikes me as giving each public what they need#maybe i didn’t understand correctly and i apologise if that’s the case#but#specially on tumblr where the majority of content is in english#the people that can only read the english version (and don’t know a lot of mexican history which is more than understandable) may discover#that tenochtitlan the conquered city#the city that was burned to the ground#held marvelous things#while the people that can read the spanish version#will discover/remember that tenochtitlan was not a city of dreams#but a city also built on death and sacrifice#particularly loved the line ‘en sus nombres perpetraban maravillas y atrocidades’#that in english is left only in 'wonders’#i think it kind of holds the heart of the poem#(or at least how i’m interpreting it)#also! love how tenochtitlan is refered to in female pronouns in the english version#while in spanish that’s not possible#both because the language structure won’t allow it and because the culture won’t allow it -- source link
#reader commentary