Customer Reviews

Ul: Four Mapuche Poets : An Anthology (Poetry in Indigenous Languages)

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John Bierhorst, the translator of this volume, is a translator whose work I trust. In this bi- and tri-lingual text, he has justified my confidence in him.

The poets translated in the volume have a varied amount of "Indian-ness" - some speak the Indian language of the group with which they identify, some do not. The poems themselves range from poems that show a non-Spanish aesthetic to those that are openly "Spanish" in some sense. For example, a poem by Jaime Luis Huenun is titled "After Reading So Much Cesar Vallejo", and three poems of Graciela Huinao remind me of the sparseness of haiku.

My favorite of the poets in Elicura Chihuailaf whose poems center around blue - a color with strong ties to the Indian culture. These poems are perhaps the most Indian, but the poems are universal in the depiction of humanity and its relationship to the rest of nature while being accessible and particular in terms of images.

These poems are well worth your time.

I bought "Ul: Four Mapuche Poets" primarily because of my interest in the languages of the world and the lack of information on the indigenous languages of South America and reasonable prices. Also, I hoped for an insight into the indigenous culture of the Southern Cone.

However, "Ul: Four Mapuche Poets" actually has nothing on the Mapudungun language apart from a few texts. Most of the work is bilingual in English and Spanish.

Nonetheless, this is not a bad read because it does give some very valuable information about the culture of the Mapuche and especially their relationship with the wider culture of Chile. The information provided about the history of this culture since Europeans settled in Chile actually matches any of the poetry included in this short volume, which possesses a remarkably classic and universal beauty in its description of the Southern Chilean (around 40 degrees South) environment.

Of the poets themselves, Chihualaf and Lienlaf, who do write in Mapudungun, uses themes not out of place in Europe itself, whereas Huenun, who writes only in Spanish, is the one who focuses on the issues of indigenous justice beloved of the Left in North America and Australia. Graciela Huenao, who also writes only in Spanish, is somewhat intermediate thematically between the two. Having read very little poetry, I must confess I know very little what I see hear does appear beautiful and touching like the best folk songs.

All in all, this is quite interesting as a source of cultural information, even if it does not show even the basic linguistic knowledge I had hoped for. Useless for the linguist, but for the poetry student highly valuable.