Parámetros De En Casa
Como que lindo lugar
Para un hijo descendiente del sitio
Que conoce sus limitaciones y ofrecidas
Un hijo pequeño burgués de portland, oregon
Cómo que apaciguado lugar
Para un pequeño burgués
Pequeño burgués en aceso a sus más destacadas instituciones
Pequeño burgués en el aprovecharse de sus relatos de mobilidad social
Y de haber salido de su mayor elite universidad de lewis and clark college
Que fue la puerta a más oportunidades que le ofrece el estado
Que lindo es la ocasión de privilegios
Una ciudad sana y humanizada
Para un ciudadano que haya salido de John Bowie, Sr. escoses inmigrante de 1703
En más que simple descendencia heredada
Sino en los mismos gustos, apetitos e historias en repetencias
Es una oferta en oportunidad para la pequeña burguesía
Parameters Of Home
But what a pretty place
For a child descendent of planet earth
That is familiar with it’s limitations as well as offerings
A child of the petty bourgeoisie of Portland, Oregon
What a pleasant place
Just right for a petty bourgeois
Petty bourgeois when it comes to access to the most cherished institutions
Petty bourgeois in taking advantage of it’s offers of social mobility
And to be a graduate of Lewis and Clark College it’s chief elite of college options
That worked as a door to other opportunities of the state
How pretty is the opportunity of privileges
A city that is humanly sane in arrangement
For a citizen that has come from John Bowie, Sr. of 1703 Scottish immigrants
In more that simply inherited descendence
But in the same desires, appetites, and historical repeats
It is an offer of opportunity for the petty bourgeois
__________________
Guillermo Bowie
Review by Massimo Fantuzzi
(How is it that?) When good poetry looks outward at the social panorama of humanity, it is never with a word of division, anger, or disdain toward its neighbors. To call us home, wherever that might happen to be. I’d go as far as saying, though I digress, that the act/language of poetry itself is a unifying one. Welcome to issue 35!
Review by Zeke Sanchez
Parámetros De En Casa by Guillermo Bowie is a very good effort in bridging two major European-origin languages. It appears to be primarily a song of thanks in blank verse, not literally a “song” of course. In it, the poet recognizes “what a pretty place” it must be where he has lived and where he has traveled to a university he cherishes. I would quibble with the translation of “sitio” to “planet earth” since sitio commonly means simply place. But it is the poet’s privilege, as the “emperor” of his poem, to translate as he wishes, and planet earth sits well in English. The words apaciguado lugar also make me pause because I would use agradable lugar. Apaciguado connotes a place that was formerly not peaceful whereas agradable might always have been peaceful. Of course, given the heated political rhetoric of Portland (the location of his college) in the news lately, I’m not completely sure which word is more appropriate now. Very good effort in both languages.