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Excerpt from Interview with Martín Espada
by: Miriam Hall
Full Interview in Journal
Miriam Hall (PGI): What’s also interesting is that in Zapata’s Disciple you talk about the
idea of Spanish being more than just a language. It’s a context. And I really
sense that when I am reading your poetry–that even when I am reading your
poems in English–I get the sense that there’s a strong identity with Spanish
there.
Martín Espada: Oh, yes of course! Certainly there’s a strong sense of identity, there’s a
strong sense of music, there is a strong sense of memory. All of those things
are present and inseparable, it’s not like I consciously decide to be dismissive.
It’s there, it always will be.
Miriam Hall (PGI):: Do poems appear to you in Spanish or English depending on thetopic,
the context?
Martín Espada: There are certain things that come to me and I am not sure why they
come to me. And the poems go through a lot of revision, so if something
comes to me in some strange form and I can’t explain what it’s doing there it
will probably disappear. Because ultimately the poem has to justify its
existence to me, otherwise it won’t ever see the light of day. Poems have to
do a lot of fast-talking with me. There are times though when a word in
Spanish will occur to me and it is simply the right word, and no English
word will do. So I have to figure out a way to use that word in a context that
will make the meaning of the word clear to the English language reader, who
of course has access to most of the poem. For example, with the poem I read
at The Progressive benefit, the word “alabanza” was the only word that I could
use, it made sense on so many levels. “Alabanza” had the right music, it had
the right emotion, it had the right meaning, the right nuances, all of that
came together and there are situations where being bilingual you suddenly
realize: “This word is the word!” I wasn’t going to try to work around it,
because it became the essence of the poem itself.
Miriam Hall (PGI):: That poem really was a fantastic poem, it really demonstrated your
relationship to representation and justice, and all the things we have been
talking about during this interview. How your work and poetry come out as
representation for those who cannot read you. And that poem in particular,
talking about the laborers who died in September 11th, was really a prime
example of that work.
Martín Espada: I would hope that people would see that poem as a continuation of
what I have been doing all along. In other words, that poem and the statement
that that poem makes are consistent with everything that I have been
saying as a poet for 20 years.
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