Blog del Instituto Cervantes de Dublín

Las novedades de la biblioteca pueden ser consultadas en nuestro catálogo en línea, como es habitual.

Para ello, seleccione ÚLTIMAS ADQUISICIONES y elija el período de tiempo que le interesa: ”el último mes” o “los últimos tres meses”.

Ésta es nuestra selección para los meses de  junio de 2013.

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The lastest additions to the library catalogue can be consulted on line as usual.

Click ÚLTIMAS ADQUISICIONES and choose the time period: “el último mes” or “los tres últimos
meses”.

This is our selection for June 2013.

Las novedades de la biblioteca pueden ser consultadas en nuestro catálogo en línea, como es habitual.

Para ello, seleccione ÚLTIMAS ADQUISICIONES y elija el período de tiempo que le interesa: ”el último mes” o “los últimos tres meses”.

Ésta es nuestra selección para los meses de noviembre de 2012.

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The lastest additions to the library catalogue can be consulted on line as usual.

Click ÚLTIMAS ADQUISICIONES and choose the time period: “el último mes” or “los tres últimos
meses”.

This is our selection for November 2012.

El blanco círculo del miedo es la última novela del escritor Rafael Escuredo. A través de esta novela policiaca, su autor hace una dura crítica a la sociedad actual, donde el ser humano llega a tener miedo y a dudar absolutamente de todo. En la novela, se narra la historia del cruel asesinato de Claudia Morante, que trae de cabeza al inspector Sobrado y sus compañeros de la brigada criminal.

Rafael Escuredo (Estepa, Sevilla, 1944), abogado y escritor, presentó su novela en Dublín y nos concedió esta entrevista que ahora ofrecemos en video.

Rafael Escuredo fue el primer Presidente de la Junta de Andalucía. Actualmente trabaja como abogado y dirige la Fundación BLU (Fundación de literatura universal). En los últimos tiempos, ha compaginado su carrera profesional con su pasión por la escritura. Ha publicado tres novelas más: Un sueño fugitivo (Planeta, 1994), Leonor, mon amour (Almuzara, 2005), con la que ganó el Premio Andalucía de la Crítica y Te estaré esperando (Almuzara, 2009); el poemario Un mal día (Endymión, 1999), el libro de relatos Cosas de mujeres (Plaza & Janés, 2002) y un recopilatorio de sus artículos de prensa bajo el título Andalucía Irredenta (Biblioteca Nueva, 2004). Están a tu disposición en la biblioteca.

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El blanco círculo del miedo is the lastest novel by writer Rafael Escuredo. This thriller makes a strong criticism of current society. A society where people are scared and doubt about everything.

This is the story of the cruel and brutal murder of Claudia Morante. A case that proves a challenge for Inspector Sobrado and his colleagues at the criminal brigade. Ignacio Lama is a young executive in the financial sector whose only interests are women and money. He is the victim’s last lover and he becomes the main suspect. His involuntary involvement in the murder precipitates events and jeopardizes his plan to blackmail the directors of the bank where he works. The brigade investigates the case in a race against time and against the backdrop of the multimillion financial debt faced by the bank and its directors.

Rafael Escuredo (Estepa, Sevilla, 1944), lawyer and writer, was the first President of the Junta de Andalucía. In recent years, he has combined his career with his passion for writing. He has published three more novels: Un sueño fugitivo (Planeta, 1994), Leonor, mon amour (Almuzara, 2005), and Te estaré esperando (Almuzara, 2009). Other work includes the collection of poems Un mal día (Endymión, 1999), short stories Cosas de mujeres (Plaza & Janés, 2002) and a compilation of his newspaper articles, Andalucía Irredenta (Biblioteca Nueva, 2004). All of them are available in our library.

Virtual interview with Jesús Ruiz Mantilla, Instituto Cervantes Dublin Library, 9th November 2011

David Carrión

Good afternoon Jesús. In January you published the article “Why do I read?”, about the motivations of different writers. Why does Jesús Ruiz Mantilla write?

Jesús Ruiz Mantilla

In general I write for curiosity’s sake, to discover things and to discover myself. Also for love, for hate, to put order to chaos or to create chaos.

I write for people to read it, to share, to define and redefine and to try to understand. I write just like that, to get into the people, into people’s minds which I don’t get to understand, in order to understand them. I write to ask, to find out, to become a better person, to understand why I can get worse. To put forward paradoxes and contradictions but with the aim to share them, rather than resolving them.

DCarrion

Why do you read? Which were your first readings and who did you get them from?

Jesús Ruiz Mantilla

I got my first readings from my dad. He offered me a collection with books by Jules Verne, and he talked to me about the Odyssey and Iliad, but especially about Michel Strogoff, The Courier of the Czar and Captain Nemo. Then it comes all the rest. I read for the same reasons I write, also to copy and to get inspired, I read to recharge my batteries, to understand and to question.

Lola Rodríguez

What’s the most difficult thing about a writer’s profession? And about a journalist’s profession?

Jesús Ruiz Mantilla

The most difficult thing in a writer’s profession is to define the idea, to be able to capture on paper what you have in your mind. Regarding a journalist, it’s trying not to repeat yourself, to communicate clearly, to catch the readers’ attention everyday, the headline and the first paragraph.

LRodríguez

Journalism in Western countries if free to a certain extent. Is it the same with literature?

Jesús Ruiz Mantilla

Literature is absolutely free. Journalism is not, it’s only free.

LRodríguez

The five novels you have written look apparently quite different. What do they have in common? Maybe the idea of identity?

Jesús Ruiz Mantilla

The concept of identity is indeed obsessive in me. All my books deal with the personal identity and my new novel Ahogada en llamas, to be published next March, also tackles the concept of collective identity.

Other common features are the expression of sensations –for example, music in Preludio and Farinelli, taste, touch and smell in Gordo and Placer contra placer-, love, duality, paradox, memory, death…

DCarrión

Please talk about your first novel Los ojos no ven. Was Dali actually a fraud or this is just Pascual Burgaleta’s opinion?

Jesús Ruiz Mantilla

Los ojos no ven was just an exercise to prove myself that I was able to write a 200 pages novel.

On whether Dali was an impostor, I think his mistake was that he tried to convince us that he was a genius where he actually wasn’t, in painting. And however, he was a genius and a visionary where he thought he wasn’t: in filmmaking, in literature –his books are absolutely brilliant- and in making up a character, a feature of the post modernity which Dali explored before Warhol.

DCarrión

Please talk now about your second novel, Preludio. You are a music lover. Is Chopin your favorite musician?

Jesús Ruiz Mantilla

You’re right, I am a music lover, especially piano. The idea of this novel was to make up a pianist. For me pianists represent the paradigm of duality: with each hand they play a different thing at the same time. It’s as if they have two heads, that’s why I created a dual, bisexual León de Vega, with right and left ideals, tender and awful, tormented and attracted by the abyss, the excess and the romanticism.

I created a link with Chopin’s 24 Preludes because I wanted a musical structure, so I related his life in 24 chapters written at the rhythm of each prelude.

DCarrión

How much of José Francisco Alonso is there in the main character of this novel, León de Vega, a man obsessed with the Polish composer?

Jesús Ruiz Mantilla

José Francisco was my uncle. I liked to see him playing piano when he came to his home city from Viena, where he lived. I was fascinated by him and León de Vega has much of my uncle in him. He served as inspiration and example.

LRodríguez

You have said that your novel Gordo originates from an anger for the marginalization of fat people in Spain. What are your demands in this novel?

Jesús Ruiz Mantilla

It’s not exactly a vindication although it is a good excuse. But it surely comes from an anger, with the aim to defend what it’s different, the extreme versus the standard, the pleasure and the suffering, and a view to the grotesque.

LRodríguez

Fat people are a referent in comedy. If we assume that we like to make fun of the extremes, skinny people should make the same effect. However, it’s not. Why do you think skinny people are not that funny?

Jesús Ruiz Mantilla

I really don’t know. I rather feel pity for skinny people, poor them.

DCarrión

What do you mean when you say that García Márquez and Vargas Llosa are tremendously fat men “specially with regard to their erotic literature”?

Jesús Ruiz Mantilla

I mean that their writing style is sensual, exorbitant, baroque, full of calories, overwhelming. It gets you dizzy in a good way. They maximize the resources of the language, the imagination and the exuberance.

LRodríguez

Can you recommend a good novel in which cuisine and the pleasure of food is a core topic?

Jesús Ruiz Mantilla

From the Ancient Greek to present food has been widely depicted in literature. Don Quixote, for example, is a big gastronomy manual book, also a hunger manual though.

DCarrión

I was surprised that you said that Farinelli himself would have chosen to be castrated, that castrati felt as a special class. What did you see in Farinelli that made you write your fourth novel about him?

Jesús Ruiz Mantilla

I was attracted by the fact that he was a great postmodernist. We live in a baroque world where identities are confused and the castrati are exactly a paradigm of this. I also wanted to enhance Farinelli’s connection with Spain. He lived in Madrid for 20 years, he introduced Italian opera and he doesn’t even have a street with his name on it or a statute, it’s a disgrace.

DCarrión

With all my respects, would you have chosen to be fat? Is being fat a life philosophy?

Jesús Ruiz Mantilla

Nowadays that is something you can choose. Otherwise it gradually shapes your thinking, your feelings and your personality for better or worse. In my case, as Falstaff, my belly is my kingdom except that, contrary to Falstaff when he says ‘I’ll make it bigger’, I go to gym to reduce it.

LRodríguez

In Placer contra placer you examine the search for happiness through pleasure and the price that must be paid to reach it. If you had to give up all pleasures except for one, which one would you choose?

Jesús Ruiz Mantilla

Hard to say… Probably affection, love, company.

DCarrión

I am surprised that in the list of pleasures of your book sex is not included. Is it because it is a sin?

Jesús Ruiz Mantilla

There is a kind of obsession for sex in all my books, even when the characters cannot have sex, like Farinelli. I don’t know why I didn’t include it in Placer contra placer, but many people have noticed that. I’m pleased to refer you to my other books, where all my characters have an unrestrained sexuality.

LRodríguez

How is the search for happiness in the affluent society and how can be explained that 50% of Spanish population suffer from depression and anxiety? We don’t have enough with the little pleasures anymore?

Jesús Ruiz Mantilla

This is the reason why I wrote this book, in order to give my view on how to find the little pleasures. We are surrounded by depression and anxiety, and by pleasures too, but I don’t know why these go unnoticed, we let them go.

That is why I wanted to make people stop and think about the little pleasures we can enjoy in our daily life, be able to identify them, become aware of them, fix them in our mind and keep on going until we encounter the next one.

LRodríguez

In Placer contra placer you analyze the theories of the greatest philosophers in history to find the key to happiness. Which theory do you prefer?

Jesús Ruiz Mantilla

The Greeks’ one, particularly Epicure’s, who advocated that pleasure is a social enhancement tool.

Dcarrión

I have heard that your fifth novel, Ahogada en llamas, should have been released in autumn 2011. It’s being hard to finish it? When would it be available in the bookstores?

Jesús Ruiz Mantilla

It will be released in March next year.

LRodríguez

Can you recommend any (pleasant) remedy against the collective anxiety of Spainish population today?

Jesús Ruiz Mantilla

To think positive. To think that Spain has got back on it’s feet after harder times than today. In fact the book I am working on now tackles this subject. It’s about a girl who became homeless during the Spanish civil war but she managed to succeed, with faith, work and determination. The power of will overcomes everything.

Thank you very much for your participation.

Related links:

• Interview by Raúl González Rumayor on La revista de Caja Cantabria
• Interview to Mr. Ruiz Montilla on the publication of his book Gordo on Clublectura.com
• Article of Jesús Ruiz Mantilla on El País: “Por qué escribo”
• Podcast. Jesús Ruiz Mantilla talks about his book Gordo on the RNE radio programme La estación azul: listen audio
• Placer contra placer download the first chapter of the book
• Review of Placer contra placer

Versión en español / English version

Virtual interview with David Roas, Instituto Cervantes Dublin Library, 18th October 2011. Translated by Lola Rodríguez.

Yves

How do you define “normality”? To what extent do the fantastic elements help reveal the inconsistencies of our world, of our societies? How strong can this criticism be? In your opinion, what are the features of a good fantastic element?

David Roas

To try to define normality is a fantastic act itself… I would rather say “regularity” instead of “normality” (which makes us think of standards), referring to the idea of real that arises from our everyday life, i.e. regularities that happen once and again helping us set the threshold between possible and impossible. As you mention, the fantasy is a way to show the chaos and absurdity of the so called reality, which we are unable to see but we are forced to live in. Breaking the limits is a way to show the chaos. On my opinion, a good fantastic element takes the reality and triviality as a starting point to then break our idea of real and possible.

Roxana Herrera

Good afternoon. I have a question for David Roas: the humour and the fantasy combine really well in some of your stories. What represents the humour about the   supernatural in the fantastic literature? Does the humour challenge the reality the same way? Does the humour implies a subgenre of the fantastic literature? Thanks.

David Roas

At the beginning I thought that the humour annulled the fantastic (although I used to combine them in my stories, I advocated otherwise on my critic writings). However, I have realised that, if well combined, the fantastic and the humour enhance each other and become a double transgression of the reality (i.e. what we consider real). While keeping the same level of relevance, together bring a doubly new perspective to the reality. Two different ways to subvert our idea of the world.

David Carrión

Good afternoon David. I have heard that you read Poe’s stories since you were 7 years old, do you remember any other readings before getting dazzled by “The black cat” and the fantastic literature in general?

David Roas

I have bad and few memories of my childhood, but I believe the first book I read that I (more or less) properly understood and had a real impact on me (strong enough to remember) was Treasure Island and some of Jules Verne’s books. It may sound as a cliché but it’s true… But after Poe, my big finds were Borges and Lovecraft at the age of 15. I repeatedly go back to these three authors, both as a reader and as a researcher.

Lola Rodríguez

In your stories there are no ogres or fairies. Your characters are usually people from the real world who suddenly encounter an absurd or impossible situation. Do you distrust the reality? Do you believe in paranormal events?

David Roas

Ogres, fairies and this kind of beings are related to the wonderful literature, not to the fantastic literature, which is rather linked to the real world as it aims to subvert it. That’s why my stories are about the reality, about daily or banal situations that could be familiar to any reader. That is where the fantasy hurts: the inrush of impossible events into our real world always gets the reader worked up. That’s why I don’t believe in paranormal events. I have enough with the absurdity and the chaos of the so called reality to think about transcendental things. The fantasy enables us to break the fake order we live in. I say fake because the world is a complete chaos.

DCarrión

Getting back to Poe, you consider him the precursor of the modern fantasy literature. How was the fantastic literature before Poe?

David Roas

Before Poe there was another great master: Hoffmann, who initiated the fantastic literature in the modern sense (i.e. different from the gothic novel). Without him, Poe wouldn’t make sense. What’s true is that Poe broke many of the ways that keep on being explored today. That’s why Poe’s stories have aged better than Hoffmann’s, which are rather linked to a romantic, stunned view of the world… On the contrary, Poe is a realistic author, a scientific… Well, and from Hoffmann to Poe there were very interesting authors of romantic fantastic literature such as Gautier, Merimée or Nodier.

DCarrión

People before 18th century didn’t enjoy being scared, what triggered the change?

David Roas

The pleasure of being scared is a modern pleasure, unthinkable before the reason became the paradigm that explained every matter of the reality. Only when humans stop believing in the realm of supernatural, this can be explored by the fiction as a source of aesthetic pleasure. To this extent, during the 18th century there appeared some new aesthetic categories linked to the irrational side: the sublime, the sinister, the nocturnal… But always with a sceptical approach: as Madame du Deffand’s famous quotation says “I don’t believe in ghosts, but they scare me”. This sentence represents the pleasant relation with horror, the one that literature and filmmaking keep on exploring: the safe pleasure of suffering from fear.

DCarrión

What are the genres or subgenres within the fantastic literature?

David Roas

I would rather talk about variations of topics instead of subgenres, as they all pursue the same goal: to break reality and, as a consequence, to alarm the reader. Note that the wonderful literature (Tolkien, the fairy tales, etc.) and science fiction are not fantastic literature even if sometimes they get very close.

LRodríguez

Horrores cotidianos, Distorsiones… It seems like you feel quite comfortable in the short distances. What are the advantages of the short stories in relation with novels?

David Roas

Intensity, concision… And it’s a very suitable format for fantastic literature.

DCarrión

Horrores cotidianos is a book with a high content of parody where, as others have mentioned, you spare nobody. What have J.Derrida and N.Chomsky done to you and to the universe in general?

David Roas

Nothing, I am very derridian on the philosophical level. And I think Chomsky is a good guy, a pain in the ass for the American empire… But they represent two iconic characters in our culture and that’s why making humour about them is so thought-provoking. It’s a culture terrorism game.

DCarrión

Distorsiones is divided into “illusions” and “asymmetries”. What’s the difference?

David Roas

It’s just a question of size: an “illusion” is a bigger distortion than an “asymmetry”, that’s why the first section is devoted to stories from 2 to 15 pages, and the second section to shorter stories. That’s all.

LRodríguez

You often mention that you admire Cristina Fernández Cubas’ works, what do you like about them?

David Roas

I like the way she combines the reality and the impossible, her expertise in the short distance (although some of her best stories are almost 40 pages long). Also the way she plays with irony and even the grotesque touch. I think there are very few writers as good as she is.

LRodríguez

What are the similarities and differences between your works and Cristina Fernández Cubas’?

David Roas

We both are interested in distorting the reality, in exploring the other side of the real world or the threshold of the so called reality. And the ironical touch. The differences are to be determined by the readers…

DCarrión

Poe, Borges, Lovecraft, Ballard, Calvino, Cristina Fernández Cubas… please help us complete your list of favourites.

David Roas

Mrozek, Merino, Bernhard, Quim Monzó, Bukowski, David Foster Wallace, Philip Roth, Melville, Conrad, Kafka, Joyce… I stop here but the list is much longer.

LRodríguez

What was your and Ana Casasal’s purpose when publishing the compilation of Spanish fantastic short stories from 20th century?

David Roas

Apart form bringing back some little-remembered writers, our main purpose was to prove the relevance and quality of the Spanish tradition in fantastic literature and to defend a fact that has always been denied by the academic sector: that the fantastic literature exists inSpainfrom the romanticism until today and that many canonical authors touched on this genre. Galdós, Pardo Bazán, Alarcón, Zorrilla, Valle Inclán, Unamuno and Baroja are just an example.

LRodríguez

Is the fantastic literature considered as a minor genre or as a genre rather addressed to young people?

David Roas

Fortunately, not anymore. Nowadays there are more and more academic works and, above all, more authors devoted to fantastic short stories…  A different thing is the wonderful literature such as Tolkien or Harry Potter, rather related to the young people.

LRodríguez

It seems that since the 90s the Spanish filmmaking is going again for the fantastic genre with movies like “El día de la bestia”, “Abre los ojos”, “El milagro de P.Tinto” or “El orfanato”. What do you think of these productions?  Would you like a screen version of your novel Celuloide Sangriento?

David Roas

All the movies you mention represent a different way to play with and break the reality… Except for El orfanato, that really bored me, I think the others are excellent. I don’t know if I would make a screen version of Celuloide Sangriento. I would prefer to see on screen some of my fantastic short stories.

LRodríguez

Do you plan to touch on other genres?

David Roas

At present I’m working on a novel… but I can’t tell much for the moment, just that I am working on it from2009 inmy spare time. I wish I can finish soon.

Thank you very much for your participation.

Related links:

• Podcast El ojo crítico: chatting with Serrat and Cristina Fernández Cubas (February 24th, 2011): listen.
• Podcast De ida y vuelta: chatting with Cristina Fernández Cubas (March 8th, 2011): listen.
• Video Cristina Fernández Cubas and the destiny of the short story on EL PAÍS. see video.
• Video Interview to Salambó Prize Winner on Avión de papel TV.
• Virtual interview to Cristina Fernández Cubas at Hay Festival in October 8th, 2011.
• Short stories by David Roas.
• Writings by David Roas on the magazine La comunidad inconfesable.
• Article. El silencio de la escritura. David Roas writes about “Bartleby y compañía”.
• Review of David Roas’ book Tras los límites de lo real by José Luis García Martín.
• Review of David Roas’ book Tras los límites de lo realby Miguel Ángel Muñoz.
• Interview to David Roas and Ana Casas by Carlos M. Sotomayor about the publication of the compilation of fantastic short stories La realidad oculta: cuentos fantásticos españoles del siglo XX.
• Interview to David Roas at Academia Editorial del Hispanismo.
• Podcast David Roas on La Libélula, Radio 3 (July 14th 2009): listen.
• Video: interview to David Roas in Peru on the presentation of his book Horrores cotidianos.
• Article about David Roas on noticias.com.
• Interview to David Roas by Mariano Villareal on literaturaprospectiva.com.
• Interview to David Roas and Sara Martín by Ana Barreiro on Cronopis Associats.

David Roas is our author of the month throughout the month of November.

< Listado de entrevistas

Anamaría Crowe Serrano: Lo que quiero hacer en mi poesía es explorar el lenguaje

Entrevista con Anamaría Crowe Serrano realizada el 31 de mayo de 2011 en la Biblioteca Dámaso Alonso del Instituto Cervantes de Dublín con motivo de su participación en la mesa redonda «Más que poesía» junto a Diego Valverde Villena

Anamaría Crowe Serrano es escritora y vive en Dublín. Es profesora de lengua española y traductora de poesía contemporánea del español e italiano al inglés. Además de sus traducciones al inglés de los poetas mexicanos Gerardo Beltrán y Elsa Cross (Selected Poems, Shearsman, 2010), también ha publicado sus traducciones al español de los poetas irlandeses Brendan Kennelly y Seamus Heaney. Como poeta, es autora del poemario Femispheres (Shearsman, 2008).

Pilar Garrido: —Anamaría Crowe Serrano, poeta y traductora irlandesa, tu segundo apellido es español. ¿De qué parte de España es tu madre?

Anamaría Crowe Serrano: —Mi madre es de Zaragoza, aunque tengo familia en Bilbao. Se vino a Irlanda hace ya cuarenta años, para estudiar inglés, y aquí se quedó y se casó con mi padre. La parte Crowe del apellido es de mi padre.

Pilar Garrido: —¿Qué destacarías de tu trabajo como poeta?

Anamaría Crowe Serrano: —Para mí, en la poesía hay dos cosas principales: el tema, lo que quieres expresar e, igualmente importante, la manera en que lo expresas, la manera de manipular el lenguaje: cómo se crean efectos sonoros, cómo se puede ser original y creativo con el lenguaje. Para mí eso es muy importante en la poesía, a veces incluso más importante que el tema.

Pilar Garrido: —¿Cómo y cuándo empezaste a escribir poesía?

Anamaría Crowe Serrano: —Empecé de bastante pequeña. Cuando tenía once años tuvimos una profesora en la escuela que me inspiró el amor por la escritura. Luego continué en la universidad, porque como estaba estudiando Filología Hispánica y Francesa, estudiaba poesía, y me encantaba. Empecé a escribir poesía inspirada por los surrealistas latinoamericanos y franceses.

Pilar Garrido: —A esa temprana edad, once años, ¿escribías en inglés o en español?

Anamaría Crowe Serrano: —Siempre escribo en inglés. Lo domino mejor, en realidad, que el español. El inglés, como siempre he vivido aquí, me resulta más natural. He escrito cuatro o cinco poesías en español, pero no las he leído nunca en público.

Pilar Garrido: —¿Qué poeta o poetas han influido en tu obra?

Anamaría Crowe Serrano: —Muchísimos. De pequeña, más que poesía, eran los relatos de Oscar Wilde, por ejemplo. Me encantaban. Luego, como te decía, en la universidad, los surrealistas siempre me han gustado y siguen influyéndome. Cuando dejé la universidad empecé a leer a Joyce, al que no había estudiado nunca, y me encantó. Joyce también se ha quedado conmigo como una influencia. También me encanta El Quijote, de Cervantes. Me parece un libro maravilloso, que tampoco es poesía, pero es muy poético también.

Pilar Garrido: —Ya que estamos en el país de los escritores, de los poetas, de los músicos. ¿Cuáles son tus escritores irlandeses favoritos?

Anamaría Crowe Serrano: —En poesía, la que más me gusta es Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin, que escribe en inglés a pesar de tener un nombre irlandés. Me gusta muchísimo su poesía. Yeats también, me encanta. A Yeats lo descubrí hace años y me fascinó. Heaney, claro, también es muy lírico. Pero también me gustan los experimentalistas, poesía mucho más contemporánea, más moderna digamos, que hace lo que yo quiero hacer en mi poesía, que es explorar el lenguaje. Hay por ejemplo un poeta que vive en Cork, que se llama Trevor Joyce, que escribe muy bien.

Pilar Garrido: —También has escrito relatos cortos. ¿Cuál destacarías?

Anamaría Crowe Serrano: —Los relatos hace muchísimo tiempo que los escribí, casi ni me acuerdo. Uno que destacaría se llama «The Barber’s Shop». Era sobre la vida de un castrato, de la época de los castrati. Sus padres los daban a la Iglesia para que se entrenaran como músicos, y a veces no sabían que les habían castrado hasta que ya eran mayores y no se habían desarrollado de manera normal. Me fascinó eso, me pareció espectacular, y escribí un cuento. Es la historia de un niño ficticio obviamente.

Pilar Garrido: —Aparte de ser poeta, también eres traductora. ¿Qué tipo de traducción haces?

Anamaría Crowe Serrano: —Casi siempre es traducción de poesía, del italiano, más que nada, al inglés, aunque también he traducido del español al inglés. Pero sobre todo poesía contemporánea italiana, de poetas vivos. Siempre puedo contactar con ellos para hacerles preguntas si tengo alguna duda. Para mí es muy importante poder tener esa colaboración con el poeta. Como sabes, hay muchísimas maneras de interpretar una poesía. Aunque sea en tu idioma nativo, a veces ni siquiera la entiendes. Creo que es importante poder preguntarle al poeta, si es posible.

Pilar Garrido: —Me imagino que los dos roles están muy relacionados.

Anamaría Crowe Serrano: —Sí. De hecho creo que es casi imprescindible ser poeta para traducir poesía. Y los poetas suelen preferir que los traduzca un poeta también. Porque uno está más acostumbrado a las técnicas de la poesía, las soluciones que se puede dar a algún giro difícil del idioma. Quizás un poeta tiene también el oído más agudo en cuanto a la sonoridad y el ritmo de la poesía.

Enlaces recomendados

• [Vídeo] Entrevista realizada a Anamaría Crowe Serrano en el Instituto Cervantes de Dublín por Pilar Garrido.
• [Audio] «El bilingüismo, una manera de sentir». Entrevista a Anamaría Crowe Serrano en CanalUNED.
• Perfil de Anamaría Crowe Serrano en Shearsman Books.
• One columbus leap Anamaría Crowe Serrano.

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