american political poetry in the 21st century - STIBA Malang
american political poetry in the 21st century - STIBA Malang
american political poetry in the 21st century - STIBA Malang
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MIGRATORY AGENCY 149<br />
illum<strong>in</strong>ates differences between Eliot’s and Pound’s Modernist<br />
version of migratory agency, hip hop’s version of it, and Lat<strong>in</strong>a/o<br />
poets’ more organic version. However, Cruz’s differentiation<br />
obscures <strong>the</strong> fact that most poets, and most speakers, borrow from a<br />
variety of discourses and codes. Whereas writers such as Eliot and<br />
Pound may have used multiple languages to create an “elite” <strong>poetry</strong>,<br />
o<strong>the</strong>r Anglo poems emphasize <strong>the</strong> aural and rhetorical effects of a<br />
Romance language such as Spanish—effects that English<br />
cannot accomplish. This use of Spanish, for <strong>in</strong>stance, can also contextualize<br />
experience. For example, John Balaban’s “Agua Fria y Las<br />
Chicharras” (Words for My Daughter 22–25, which was selected by<br />
W.S. Merw<strong>in</strong> for <strong>the</strong> 1990 National Poetry Series) has a Spanish title<br />
and a few Spanish l<strong>in</strong>es. Yet Balaban, who has translated Bulgarian<br />
poets Blaga Dimitrova and Georgi Borisov and Vietnamese poet Ho<br />
Xuan Huong, 15 does not speak or read Spanish. In <strong>the</strong> poem, Spanish<br />
au<strong>the</strong>nticates experience and creates key sound effects. Because <strong>the</strong><br />
poem takes place <strong>in</strong> three places—<strong>the</strong> Alhambra; Arroyo Hondo,<br />
New Mexico; and Taos, New Mexico—Spanish words au<strong>the</strong>nticate<br />
and localize <strong>the</strong> poem and <strong>the</strong> experiences <strong>the</strong>re<strong>in</strong>.<br />
The first part of <strong>the</strong> poem focuses on sound itself, specifically on<br />
how “<strong>the</strong> voice of <strong>the</strong> Prophet,” <strong>the</strong> s<strong>in</strong>g<strong>in</strong>g of “water-carriers,” <strong>the</strong><br />
“spill of water,” and “locusts call<strong>in</strong>g at <strong>the</strong> edge of wilderness” comb<strong>in</strong>e<br />
to create elemental motion and tactile and aural beauty. To<br />
presage, au<strong>the</strong>nticate, and contextualize <strong>the</strong>se effects, Balaban renders<br />
<strong>the</strong> title, which translates simply as “Cold Water and <strong>the</strong> Locusts,”<br />
and <strong>the</strong> water-carriers’ song <strong>in</strong> Spanish. Balaban’s use of Spanish does<br />
not <strong>in</strong>dicate “elite” <strong>in</strong>tentions nor “colonial imposition,” as a full<br />
read<strong>in</strong>g makes clear. But it implies, if not a lesser status, than a supplemental,<br />
or ornamental, status for <strong>the</strong> second language, although<br />
certa<strong>in</strong>ly not a relationship of “mastery.”<br />
Though Balaban’s poem actuates a type of migratory agency,<br />
I <strong>in</strong>clude it here ma<strong>in</strong>ly for a different purpose. Code switch<strong>in</strong>g<br />
between English and Spanish, which is key to many poems <strong>in</strong> chapter 3<br />
and o<strong>the</strong>rs like <strong>the</strong>m, is not <strong>the</strong> only k<strong>in</strong>d of switch<strong>in</strong>g that characterize<br />
<strong>the</strong>m. Candelaria writes that Chicana/o <strong>poetry</strong> only appears bil<strong>in</strong>gual<br />
“if one is not look<strong>in</strong>g or listen<strong>in</strong>g very hard.” She rightly claims<br />
that much Chicana/o <strong>poetry</strong> has a “multil<strong>in</strong>gualism” with six dist<strong>in</strong>ct<br />
dialects—Standard American English, Standard Spanish, English<br />
slang/vernacular, Spanish dialects/regional vernaculars,<br />
English/Spanish bil<strong>in</strong>gualism, and “an amalgam of pre-American<br />
<strong>in</strong>digenous languages” (Chicano Poetry 73; orig<strong>in</strong>al emphasis). Pérez-<br />
Torres also po<strong>in</strong>ts out that Chicana/o <strong>poetry</strong> moves not only between