{"id":9196,"date":"2011-06-27T12:07:20","date_gmt":"2011-06-27T11:07:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.cervantes.es\/dublin\/?p=9196"},"modified":"2013-06-29T12:19:06","modified_gmt":"2013-06-29T11:19:06","slug":"interview-with-anamaria-crowe-serrano","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.cervantes.es\/dublin\/interview-with-anamaria-crowe-serrano\/","title":{"rendered":"Interview with Anamar\u00eda Crowe Serrano"},"content":{"rendered":"

List of interviews<\/a><\/p>\n

Anamar\u00eda Crowe Serrano: What I want to do in my poetry is explore language<\/h2>\n

\"Anamaria_Crowe_Serrano\"<\/p>\n

Interview with Anamar\u00eda Crowe Serrano held on 31st May 2011 at the D\u00e1maso Alonso Library of the Instituto Cervantes in Dublin on the occasion of her participation in the round table discussion \u201cMore than poetry\u201d, with Diego Valverde Villena.<\/h4>\n

Anamar\u00eda Crowe Serrano is a writer and lives in Dublin. She teaches Spanish language and translates Spanish and Italian contemporary poetry into English. In addition to her English translations of Mexican poets Gerardo Beltr\u00e1n and Elsa Cross (Selected Poems, Shearsman, 2010) she has also published translations into Spanish of the Irish poets Seamus Heaney and Brendan Kennelly. As a poet, she is the author of a collection titled Femispheres (Shearsman, 2008).<\/p>\n

Pilar Garrido: \u2014Anamar\u00eda Crowe Serrano is an Irish poet and translator. Your second surname is Spanish. What part of Spain is your mother from?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Anamar\u00eda Crowe Serrano:<\/span> <\/strong>\u2014My mother is from Zaragoza, but I also have family in Bilbao. My mum came to Ireland about 40 years ago to study English, and she stayed and married my father. My first surname, Crowe, comes from my father.<\/p>\n

Pilar Garrido: \u2014What would you highlight from your work as a poet?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Anamar\u00eda Crowe Serrano:<\/span> <\/strong>\u2014For me, there are two key aspects to poetry: there’s the theme, what you want to express and, equally important, the way you express it, the way you manipulate language, how you create sound effects and how you can produce something original and creative with language. For me, that\u2019s absolutely essential in poetry, sometimes it’s even more important than the theme.<\/p>\n

Pilar Garrido: \u2014When and how did you start writing poems?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Anamar\u00eda Crowe Serrano:<\/span> <\/strong>\u2014I started quite young. When I was 11 I had an inspiring teacher at school who instilled a huge love of writing in me. That continued in college. As my degree was in French and Spanish Language and Literature I studied poetry and loved it. I started writing poems, inspired at that time by the Latin American and French surrealists.<\/p>\n

Pilar Garrido: \u2014At that early age of 11, did you write in English or Spanish?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Anamar\u00eda Crowe Serrano:<\/span><\/strong> \u2014I always write in English. Actually, I have a better command of English than Spanish, even though my Spanish is good but it\u2019s more natural for me to write in English because I’ve always lived in Ireland. I’ve written maybe four or five poems in Spanish but I\u2019ve never read them in public.<\/p>\n

Pilar Garrido: \u2014Which poet or poets have influenced you?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Anamar\u00eda Crowe Serrano:<\/span> <\/strong>\u2014There are lots. As a child, more than poetry it was Oscar Wilde\u2019s short stories which I adored. Later on, as I was saying, at university I discovered the surrealists who have remained a constant influence. And then, when I left college, I took up Joyce whom I had never studied before. Joyce is always with me as a point of reference. I also love Cervantes\u2019 Don Quixote. It’s a fabulous book, and while it’s not poetry, it is very poetic.<\/p>\n

Pilar Garrido: \u2014As we are in a country of writers, poets, musicians… who are your favourite Irish authors?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Anamar\u00eda Crowe Serrano:<\/span> <\/strong>\u2014In terms of poetry, my favourite is Eil\u00e9an N\u00ed Chuillean\u00e1in, who writes in English although she has an Irish name. Her work is really beautiful. I also like Yeats. I discovered Yeats many years ago and was fascinated by him. Heaney, of course, is so lyrical as well… But I also like the experimental poets, whose poetry is more contemporary, more edgy, and it does just what I want to do in my own poems, explore language. For example, there’s a poet who lives in Cork called Trevor Joyce, whose writing is really good.<\/p>\n

Pilar Garrido: \u2014You have also written short stories. Which one would you highlight?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Anamar\u00eda Crowe Serrano:<\/span> <\/strong>\u2014I wrote the short stories a long time ago, I hardly remember them. Maybe if I was to pick one it would be \u201cThe Barber’s Shop\u201d about the life of a castrato, set in the times of these singers, the castrati. Their parents would sell them to the Church to be trained as musicians. Sometimes these children didn\u2019t know they had been castrated until they were adults and they didn\u2019t develop in the normal way. I was fascinated by that and wrote a story about it. Obviously, it’s a story about a fictitious child.<\/p>\n

Pilar Garrido: \u2014You\u2019re a poet and also a translator. What kind of translations do you do?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Anamar\u00eda Crowe Serrano:<\/span> <\/strong>\u2014I usually translate poetry, mostly from Italian into English, but I\u2019ve also translated from Spanish into English. Most of the Italian contemporary poetry I translate is by living poets, so I can always contact them if I have any doubts or queries. For me, it\u2019s very important to be able to collaborate with the poet. As you know, there are so many ways to interpret a poem. Sometimes you might not understand it even if it\u2019s in your native language. That\u2019s why I believe it’s important to consult with the poet, whenever possible.<\/p>\n

Pilar Garrido: \u2014I imagine the two roles are very inter-related.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Anamar\u00eda Crowe Serrano:<\/span> <\/strong>\u2014Absolutely. I think it\u2019s almost essential to be a poet in order to translate poetry. And poets usually prefer to be translated by another poet because you\u2019re familiar with poetic techniques, the solutions that can be found for difficult turns of phrase. You might also have a sharper ear, sensitive to the sound and rhythm of poetry.<\/p>\n

Recommended links<\/strong><\/p>\n