Two important figures in Spanish-language poetry—Carolyn Forché and Fernando Valverde—read their work to the Emory and Atlanta community in the Presentation Room of Emory’s Oxford Road Building on Feb. 8.
Forché and Valverde’s highly anticipated visit coincided with Ada Limón’s reading on Feb. 11, as part of the annual Raymond Danowski Poetry Library Reading Series. These three literary figures came together on Emory’s campus for a week of readings, conversations and translations in which the artists engaged with each other and with Emory students.
Limón is the United States’ 24th Poet Laureate, author of six poetry collections and National Book Award finalist, among several other accolades. Forché is an acclaimed translator and author of poetry collections including “Gathering the Tribes” and her most recent “In the Lateness of the World.” Valverde is a journalist for the Spanish Newspaper El País, director of the International Festival of Poetry in Granada and writer of the collection, “The Insistence of Harm.” His last bilingual book, “America,” includes both his Spanish-language poems and Forché’s English translations of them.
The poets’ collaboration kicked off on Wednesday with readings from Forché and Valverde, introduced by Emory faculty Jericho Brown and Karen Stolley, respectively. Valverde read three poems from “America”—“The Country of Lone Wolves,” “Austin, Texas, 1966” and “The Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. Sees the Promised Land”—each of which Forché read an English translation directly afterward. The presented poems focused on themes of American gun violence and historical assassinations.
Forché’s three poems—“The Colonel,” “The Boatman” and “The Lightkeeper”—likewise assumed political and documentary purposes through the poet’s approach of writing about people she had actually met and the stories that resulted from such experiences. Like Valverde, Forché preceded each poem with a short anecdote about the inspiration or creative process of the piece. For instance, she explained how she jotted down “The Colonel” directly after the encounter so she would not forget its details, and it ended up being published as the only poem she has never revised from its original draft. She also revealed that “The Boatman” was the real story of a taxi driver she rode with in Milwaukee who made her promise to write a poem about his experience as a refugee fleeing Syria on a raft.
On Thursday, Forché and Valverde joined Limón in the Carlos Museum’s Ackerman Hall for a community engagement panel divided in two parts. The first involved a discussion about writing in the contemporary American landscape as well as a small workshop component in which audience members wrote their own haikus and hung them on the wall to be collected and potentially archived by the Rose Library.
As the evening went on, the poets’ conversation turned toward translation. Limón first presented her poem “The End of Poetry,” which was then read in Spanish. Valverde recited “The Wound Before the Tomb of Walt Whitman,” which Forché read in English. Then, Forché gave both English and Spanish versions of one of the first poems she ever translated, Claribel Alegría’s “Flowers from the Volcano.”
Afterward, the panelists answered questions from the audience regarding their perspectives on translation and the translation process. The panel members agreed that translation is an underappreciated art and expressed their shared love of encountering their own work in translation.
Forché also acknowledged the challenges of translation by explaining how much effort contributes toward what will ultimately be an imperfect reflection of an original work. She described every word as a decision that will always be slightly wrong; the goal of translators, she explained, is to make the least wrong decisions.
Friday marked the 23rd annual 12th Night Revel in the Silverbell Pavilion of the Emory Conference Center, where Emory patrons, alumni, staff and students shared their own short poems before Limón presented six of hers. Anikka Jordan (23C) took the opportunity to read one of her own poems during the event, and said she felt supported by the artists and patrons in attendance.
“I also spoke with some community members afterward while we were walking out of the event, and they congratulated me and said they enjoyed hearing me read,” Jordan said.
Additionally, Jordan said meeting Limón was an especially exciting experience.
“You can just tell from her poems and also her smile that she’s such a warm and nurturing person,” Jordan said.
At the event’s culmination on Feb. 12, Glenn Auditorium brimmed with people until a standing crowd formed in the back. Emory alumnus Dr. Jeremy Paden began with opening remarks. Next to take the podium was Limón herself. Clear and expressive in her vocality, Limón started with four poems from her poetry collection, “The Carrying,” before transitioning to those from her most recent collection, “The Hurting Kind.” Every one of them earned a round of enthusiastic applause.
Many attendees, such as Luis Ciriaco (25C), waited in line to get Limón’s signature after buying one of her books in the lobby. Ciriaco said he found the experience influential as both an enthusiast and writer of poetry.
“Hear[ing] what she read will really impact how I write and inspire me to pursue that similar style of writing,” Ciriaco said.
Ciriaco also expressed pride in Limón becoming the country’s first Latina Poet Laureate, especially because, like Limón, he is Mexican-American.
“It’s always great to see people who have Latinx identity to be able to achieve,” Ciriaco said.
Through their readings and direct community engagement this week, Forché, Valverde and Limón showed how poetry is more than speaking words off a page and how translation is more than carrying text from one language to another.
As Forché told her audience on Thursday, “All human experience is translation.”
