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| omnipoetics:discourse_between_walt_whitman_and_pedro_mir [2025/02/12 22:48] – joshua | omnipoetics:discourse_between_walt_whitman_and_pedro_mir [2025/04/24 00:41] (current) – admin |
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| ====== Map of the America's: A Hemispheric Juxtaposition between The United States and the Carribean (120-3) ====== | ====== A Map of the Americas: A Hemispheric Juxtaposition between The United States and the Caribbean (120-3) ====== |
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| Whitman declares: "The United States themselves are essentially the greatest poem" (112). Can the United States simultaneously exist as a poem and nation? How does this metaphor emphasizes unity, structure, and grapple with the vision of the United States, a singular state that happens to be composed of many nations. In other words, what are the implications of imagining a country really be a poem? | Whitman declares: "The United States themselves are essentially the greatest poem" (112). Can the United States simultaneously exist as a poem and nation? How does this metaphor emphasizes unity, structure, and grapple with the vision of the United States, a singular state that happens to be composed of many nations. In other words, what are the implications of imagining a country really be a poem? |
| Rothenberg and Taboada arranged the Map of the America's as a subsection of "A First Gallery", a portion of //The Serpent and the Fire// that concludes with a burst of Walt Whitman ("Come, Said my Soul", "This Compost", "Respondez, or Poem of the Propositions of Nakedness:, and Good-bye My Fancy!", juxtaposed by Pablo Neruda's "Ode to Walt Whitman" (92-98). This second juxtaposition of Whitman with Mir replicates the the composition coordination of Whitman with Caribbean and South American poets advances the principles of omnipoetics: | Rothenberg and Taboada arranged the Map of the America's as a subsection of "A First Gallery", a portion of //The Serpent and the Fire// that concludes with a burst of Walt Whitman ("Come, Said my Soul", "This Compost", "Respondez, or Poem of the Propositions of Nakedness:, and Good-bye My Fancy!", juxtaposed by Pablo Neruda's "Ode to Walt Whitman" (92-98). This second juxtaposition of Whitman with Mir replicates the the composition coordination of Whitman with Caribbean and South American poets advances the principles of omnipoetics: |
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| no. 2: Omnipoetics as an attempt to create a horizontal corpus of works that can facilitate a mutual communications across borders, bringing it all into a continually expanding "symposium of the whole." (xli). | * no. 2: Omnipoetics as an attempt to create a horizontal corpus of works that can facilitate a mutual communications across borders, bringing it all into a continually expanding "symposium of the whole." (xli). |
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| A second engagement with Whitman in conversation with American poets from South American and the Caribbean showcase the new arrangement of literary knowledge at out disposal if we adopt a Hemispheric approach to American Literary studies. | A second engagement with Whitman in conversation with American poets from South American and the Caribbean showcase the new arrangement of literary knowledge at out disposal if we adopt a Hemispheric approach to American Literary studies. |
| ===== "Starting from Paumanok" — Walt Whitman (1819-1892) USA===== | ===== "Starting from Paumanok" — Walt Whitman (1819-1892) USA===== |
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| ==== **Phonetic Inheritance of Indigenous Language** ==== | ==== Phonetic Inheritance of Indigenous Language ==== |
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| Whitman's expansive poetics connects the bodies that people cities, the insects that hide under leaves of grass, and the rocks, bugs, and soils—all of these beings composes the expression of the United States according to Whitman's particular arrangement through his poetry. [[https://whitmanarchive.org/item/ppp.00270_00280|"Starting from Paumanok"]] in the "Map of the America's" arrangement attempts to create a new vision of the American Literary imagination through a concentrated and intentional expansion of what it means to be "American". Whitman muses about national unity through an particular embrace of the sounds of the indigenous languages into the poetry of the new America. Whitman reveals his aesthetic of a new American poetry by integrating indigenous names into the body of "Starting from Paumanok". Its important to read these names as phonetic possibilities of a distinctly American English. The presence of Indigenous language though nation names and places names do not exist in the poem for the purpose of information the reader about Indian Wars or to represent the cultural contributions of the particular indigenous people. | Whitman's expansive poetics connects the bodies that people cities, the insects that hide under leaves of grass, and the rocks, bugs, and soils—all of these beings composes the expression of the United States according to Whitman's particular arrangement through his poetry. [[https://whitmanarchive.org/item/ppp.00270_00280|"Starting from Paumanok"]] in the "Map of the America's" arrangement attempts to create a new vision of the American Literary imagination through a concentrated and intentional expansion of what it means to be "American". Whitman muses about national unity through an particular embrace of the sounds of the indigenous languages into the poetry of the new America. Whitman reveals his aesthetic of a new American poetry by integrating indigenous names into the body of "Starting from Paumanok". Its important to read these names as phonetic possibilities of a distinctly American English. The presence of Indigenous language though nation names and places names do not exist in the poem for the purpose of information the reader about Indian Wars or to represent the cultural contributions of the particular indigenous people. |
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| <poem> | <POEM> |
| The red aborigines! | The red aborigines! |
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| Leaving natural breaths, sounds of rain and winds, calls as of birds and animals in the woods, syllabled to us for names; | Leaving natural breaths, sounds of rain and winds, calls as of birds and animals in the woods, syllabled to us for names; |
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| Okonee, Koosa, Ottawa, Monongahela, Sauk, Natchez, Chattahoochee, Kaqueta, Oronoco, Wabash, Miami, Saginaw, Chippewa, Oshkosh, Walla- Walla; | Okonee, Koosa, Ottawa, Monongahela, Sauk, Natchez, Chattahoochee, Kaqueta, Oronoco, Wabash, Miami, Saginaw, Chippewa, Oshkosh, Walla- Walla; |
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| Leaving such to The States, they melt, they depart, charging the water and the land with names. (Rothenberg 120) | Leaving such to The States, they melt, they depart, charging the water and the land with names. (Rothenberg 120) |
| </poem> | </POEM> |
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| Although Whitman's list of indigenous names might read as lazy or disengaged from the people behind the semiotic reference, Whitman claims the names as phonetic possibilities for American poetry that comes out of a community of American peoples who value the linguistic enlargements American English. | Although Whitman's list of indigenous names might read as lazy or disengaged from the people behind the semiotic reference, Whitman claims the names as phonetic possibilities for American poetry that comes out of a community of American peoples who value the linguistic enlargements American English. |
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| ==== **Charging Water and Natural National Imagination** ==== | ====Charging Water and Natural National Imagination==== |
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| The metaphor of Indigenous nations melting away integrates in the history of the United State's government's territorial disputes with the Indigenous Nations, the violent the expansion of "American" territory by mapping over the indigenous nations within the nation. By drawing his readers attention to the similarity shared between nations and natural elements, ie water, the indigenous names direct the reader to think about the effects of the passage of time. The sublimation of indigenous nations into place names, rivers, counties, states, and national parks, might not be the most ideal way for the past to influence to future generations; however, the nurturing function of water, the innate desire for the living to be near water,to consume it, to allow the charge melting water to permeate the soil of the American poetic Imagination in similar way the nature of water will over saturate the soil, that is, Indigenous language has the potential to fill the the new American landscape through the structural influence of landscape names, an inheritance of geographical imagination that passes on phonetic substances despite being divorced from their original form. | The metaphor of Indigenous nations melting away integrates in the history of the United State's government's territorial disputes with the Indigenous Nations, the violent the expansion of "American" territory by mapping over the indigenous nations within the nation. By drawing his readers attention to the similarity shared between nations and natural elements, ie water, the indigenous names direct the reader to think about the effects of the passage of time. The sublimation of indigenous nations into place names, rivers, counties, states, and national parks, might not be the most ideal way for the past to influence to future generations; however, the nurturing function of water, the innate desire for the living to be near water,to consume it, to allow the charge melting water to permeate the soil of the American poetic Imagination in similar way the nature of water will over saturate the soil, that is, Indigenous language has the potential to fill the the new American landscape through the structural influence of landscape names, an inheritance of geographical imagination that passes on phonetic substances despite being divorced from their original form. |
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| ===== "Countersong to Walt Whitman" (1952) — Pedro Mir (1913-2000) Dominican Republic ===== | ===== "Contracanto a Walt Whitman"(1952) — Pedro Mir (1913-2000) Dominican Republic ===== |
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| | What does the juxtaposition produce in the mind of the readers who interact with Whitman's prophetic vision as a cultural export, and they seem to ignore, or perhaps leave room for, the reader to suggests the relationship between the two poems beyond the similarity? |
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| Spanish, translated by Jonathan Cohen, [[https://ciudadseva.com/texto/contracanto-a-walt-whitman/|"Contracanto a Walt Whitman"]] | |
| Similar to Whitman's "Paumanok", Mir writes a segmented poem of seventeen stanzas, however, he number only 16, leaves the first unnumbered | Similar to Whitman's "Paumanok", Mir writes a segmented poem of seventeen stanzas, however, he number only 16, leaves the first unnumbered |
| segment. | segment. |
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| What does the juxtaposition produce in the mind of the readers who interact with Whitman's prophetic vision as a cultural export, and they seem to ignore, or perhaps leave room for, the reader to suggests the relationship between the two poems beyond the similarity? | |
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| | ==== Whitman as the Named Subject or a sign in the another nations Language ==== |
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| **Whitman as the Named Subject or a sign in the another nations Langauge** | |
| <poem> | <poem> |
| Those of you who do not want Walt Whitman, the democrat, | Those of you who do not want Walt Whitman, the democrat, |
| The ones who take the tongue of Walt Whitman | The ones who take the tongue of Walt Whitman |
| for a sign of spraying bullets, | for a sign of spraying bullets, |
| doe a flog of fire. | for a flog of fire. (122) |
| </poem> | </poem> |
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| **Refrains** Notice repetition of images that qualify the poets face | ==== Refrains ==== |
| | Notice the poetic iconography of Whitman's beard and face |
| * "(¡Oh, Walt Whitman de barba luminosa…!)" | (Oh, Walt Whitman of the luminous beard...!") seg. IV | * "(¡Oh, Walt Whitman de barba luminosa…!)" | (Oh, Walt Whitman of the luminous beard...!") seg. IV |
| * "(¡Oh, Walt Whitman de barba insospechada…!)" | (Oh, Walt Whitman of the undreamed beard...!") seg. V | * "(¡Oh, Walt Whitman de barba insospechada…!)" | (Oh, Walt Whitman of the undreamed beard...!") seg. V |
| * "¡Oh, Walt Whitman, tu barba sensitiva /era una red al viento!" | Oh, Walt Whitman, your sensitive beard/ was a net of wind!" seg. VI | * "¡Oh, Walt Whitman, tu barba sensitiva /era una red al viento!" | Oh, Walt Whitman, your sensitive beard/ was a net of wind!" seg. VI |
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| | <columns 100% first column attributes 50% second column attributes -> |
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| <poem> | <poem> |
| | **[[https://www.jonathancohenweb.com/mir.html|Translation by Jonathan Cohen ]]** |
| | **XVI** |
| O Walt Whitman of aroused beard! | O Walt Whitman of aroused beard! |
| Here we are without beards, | Here we are without beards, |
| of Manhattan! | of Manhattan! |
| </poem> | </poem> |
| * * * | |
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| | <newcolumn> |
| <poem> | <poem> |
| | **[[https://ciudadseva.com/texto/contracanto-a-walt-whitman/| Original Spanish]]** |
| | **XVI** |
| ¡Oh, Walt Whitman de barba levantada! | ¡Oh, Walt Whitman de barba levantada! |
| Aquí estamos sin barba, | Aquí estamos sin barba, |
| aquí estamos | aquí estamos |
| en pie para justificarte, | en pie para justificarte, |
| continuo compañero de Manhattan! (XVI) | continuo compañero de Manhattan! |
| </poem> | </poem> |
| | </columns> |
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| ====== Editor Function: Rothenberg & Taboada ====== | |
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| The arrangement suggests that the editors want to shape the container of Whitman's literary legacy around the legacy of American imperial hegemony over the cultural production of the poets whose imaginations were | |
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| | ====== Editor Function: Rothenberg & Taboada ====== |
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| | The arrangement suggests that the editors want to shape the container of Whitman's literary legacy around the legacy of American imperial hegemony, a post-colonial reading that argues the cultural production of American poetry in some sense colonized the minds of Carribean and Latin American poets. Why implicate Walt Whitman in the manifest destiny? What does the editor gain in the framing of Whitman the artist and the symbol of his literary aesthetic on the federal government's management of western expansion? |
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| Why implicate Walt Whitman in the manifest destiny? What does the editor gain in the framing of Whitman the artist and the symbol of his literary aesthetic on the federal government's management of western expansion? How does this connection serve the omnipoetic project (particular objective no. in the manifesto)? | |
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| | Constructed in a parallel structure that plays with the concept of plurality and singularity, the relationship between an individual and the collective. The expression of a unity of being between people under the construction of a national project that subsumed the nations within nation, the grammatical nod to the pronoun of individuality and the doubling of the individual in the places of a radical inclusive or a rejection of dependence and a radical egoist sensitivity, a pull inward so strong that the individual disappears, or at least becomes concealed behind the image of the collective. |
| Constructed in a parallel structure that plays with the concept of plurality and singularity, the relationship between an individual and the collective. the expression of a unity of being between people under the construction of a national project that subsumed the nations within nation, the grammatical nod to the pronoun of individuality and the doubling of the individual in the places of a radical inclusive or a rejection of dependence and a radical egoist sensitivity, a pull inward so strong that — | |
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| Anyway, Mir leads with the Spanish first person singular pronoun "yo" | Anyway, Mir leads with the Spanish first person singular pronoun "yo" |
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| <poem> | <poem> |
| Yo, | **Yo,** |
| un hijo del Caribe, | un hijo del Caribe, |
| precisamente antillano. | precisamente antillano. |
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| <poem> | <poem> |
| I, | **I,** |
| a son of the Caribbean, | a son of the Caribbean, |
| Antillean to be exact. | Antillean to be exact. |
| </poem> | </poem> |
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| "Whitman's spirit can only be redeemed by a new pronoun, the //we// of all those nations and people that have been //othered//" (123). | Which is pretty neat if you ask me. Rothenberg thinks so to, or at least his critical framing brings down this subtle linguistic shift in structure, ""Whitman's spirit can only be redeemed by a new pronoun, the //we// of all those nations and people that have been //othered//" (123). I'm not sure if Whitman's //spirit// needs to be redeemed. But the juxtaposition between poets places the readers in a new literary geography composed in the service of omnipoetics. |
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| | {{tag>English USA poem lyric(poem) Race_Culture_Identity Walt_Whitman Original}} |
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