Roberto Rodriguez
on translating Alejandro Zambra
“Propiedad de la espera” was exactly the poem I didn’t know I was looking for. Several others were tested, but this one struck me on a more personal level. Zambra has a subtle way of transmitting verse with intimidating simplicity, or better yet, decisiveness, which makes it daunting to translate when trying to stay as faithful to the original as possible. At first, I tried to alternate nouns when talking about a subject more than once, such as with “her feet.” I thought about switching between feet and legs in order to counter the more repetitive nature of the English, considering that in Spanish there is no need to directly imply a person’s gender when talking about him/her. “She tries,” “her feet,” “she looks,” “she stops,” and “she has” could not have been avoided without making the poem suffer. For example, the first line would translate literally into something like: “Tries to feel the floor.” The line uses a gender-neutral pronoun. “It” would be the closest comparison. The penultimate verse in the original, “Y que ella [“she”] mira el mar,” is the only indication of this figure’s gender. After reading the poem many times, a title instantly came to mind: “Under The Custody Of Time.” “Propiedad de la espera” literally translates to “Property Of Waiting,” which I don’t think fully grasps the poem’s meaning. To me, this poem is about how bittersweet it is to look back at our past, or even about how we sometimes feel our lives might be slipping from our hands, how we idly stand in place while the world just keeps turning without us. “Under The Custody Of Time…
about the author
Alejandro Zambra is a famous twenty-first-century Chilean poet, short story writer, and novelist. He graduated from University of Chile in 1997 with a degree in Hispanic literature, obtained an MA in Hispanic studies in Madrid, and received a PhD in literature in Chile. Zambra is most likely known for his first novel, Bonsái, which won the Chilean Critics Award for best novel in 2006. He has been featured multiple times in magazines such as the New Yorker, the Paris Review, and Tin House in recognition of his literary works. He currently teaches at the School of Literature at Diego Portales University in Santiago.
about the translator
Roberto Rodríguez was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico. He works at a bookstore and enjoys sharing his favorite books with any who bother asking him. His favorite hobbies include reading and writing, and he longs for the day when he can make a living out of doing what he loves. At gatherings, you might find him engrossed in deep conversation, often mid-pitch through his latest idea for the wildly fantastic novel he is surely destined to write one day.
