Post by moira on Aug 28, 2008 9:48:32 GMT 2
Gertrudis Gómez de Avallaneda
La Avellaneda, as Gertrudis Gómez de Avallaneda(1814-1873)
became known, appealed to me when we read her poetry in a Hispano-American Literature course in 2007-08. I was thrilled to discover a woman poet living around the same time as Emily Dickinson who was a passionate lyricist. Of course, she's a romantic, but her strong emotion is married to an equally strong sense of her value as a woman. She's not going to be cowardly or consumed by "crazy sorrow." She engages with the spirit of the hurricane and, metaphorically at least, unleashes her "desire for vengeance" in order to gain back her sanity.
Reading this poem, I am reminded of Adrienne Rich and the way she yokes together "powerful" and "womanly." La Avellaneda is both---and a fabulous sonneteer.
Claire Keyes
***
DESEO DE VENGANZAGertrudis Gómez de Avallaneda
(Soneto escrito en una tarde tempestuosa)[/b]
¡Del huracán espíritu potente,
rudo como la pena que me agita!
¡Ven, con el tuyo mi furor excita!
¡Ven con tu aliento a enardecer mi mente!
¡Que zumbe el rayo y con fragor reviente,
mientras -cual a hoja seca o flor marchita-
tu fuerte soplo al roble precipita
roto y deshecho al bramador torrente!
Del alma que te invoca y acompaña,
envidiando tu fuerza destructora,
lanza a la par la confusión extraña.
¡Ven... al dolor que insano la devora
haz suceder tu poderosa saña,
y el llanto seca que cobarde llora!
by Gertrudis Gomez de Avallanada
tinyurl.com/4t4gdn
***
DESIRE FOR VENGEANCE
(written during a stormy night)[/i][/color]
Come! Oh powerful hurricane spirit,
rude as the anguish that stirs within me.
Come! My fury is aroused by yours.
Your strength inflames my mind.
As lightning buzzes, its clamor bursting,
your fierce gusts fracture and destroy
an oak as if it were simply dry leaves
or withered flowers in the howling torrent.
My soul calls out to go with you
envying your destructive force,
letting fly, at the same time, this strange confusion.
Come – to the crazy sorrow that consumes me
and to the dry tears that cowards cry -
bring your powerful sanity.
translated by Claire Keyes
***
Read more about this poet here:
tinyurl.com/4vzoby[/font]