Jetman, Haylli (Ode to the Jet Plane) by José María Arguedas

In the anthology Serpent and the Fire: Poetries of the Americas from Origins to Present, Jerome Rothenberg and Javier Taboada include a translation of José María Arguedas’ poem “Jetman, Haylli (Ode to the Jet Plane)” from Arguedas’ poetry collection titled Katatay.

• Listen to the Poem: BICENTENARIO OLVIDO / Capítulo VI: José María Arguedas. Jetman, haylli (Oda al Jet)

• Read Katatay Online: Katatay PDF

Written between 1962 and 1969 and published posthumously in 1972, this collection of 7 poems is regarded as the origin of modern Quechua poetry in Peru. Its title means “to tremble” (as in an earthquake) because the poems reflect both cultural changes and innovations in language, which Arguedas called “indigenous vanguardism”. Arguedas wrote the poems using several Quechua dialects and also translated them into Spanish,“in christian and in indian”, in his own words, thus creating a bridge between those two languages and becoming a “cultural mediator” in his first attempt at poetry. His use of the poetic subject wakey runa (hermano, 'brother') can be interpreted as individual or collective, expressing human suffering as a search for meaning that brings nature, men, and gods together in poems that provide an indigenous view of important socio-political moments in history.

For the Serpent and the Fire: Poetries of the Americas from Origins to Present, Arguedas' poem was translated by Javiar Taboada. However, Taboada translated the Spanish version of the poem into English. The Spanish version was translated by Alfredo Torero and José María Arguedas. ¹⁾ In Spanish, the title of the poem is “Oda al Jet,” and in Quechua, the poem is titled “Jetman, Haylli.”

• If you are interested in how the poem may have evolved, given the fact that the version in the anthology was technically translated twice, it may be helpful to read more about Javier Taboada's process as a translator and his views on translation. In an interview with Dylan Brennan, Taboada describes translation in the following way: “It is obvious that translation, as reading or as a constant act, not only modifies one’s own voice, but also changes literary traditions. One day, those who study the national poetry of certain regions will pay more attention to the translated works that their poets have read as opposed to the original versions.” ²⁾

The Difficulty of Translating Arguedas

It is difficult to find “Ode to the Jet Plane” online, and most articles related to the poem are in Spanish. While this may be a barrier for people who do not speak Spanish, there is an explanation for why so few translations are available to read. In particular, in the introduction to José María Arguedas' novel, Deep Rivers, John V. Murra points out that “Arguedas did not write with us [English speakers] in mind.” ³⁾ Murra then provides an example of this citing a time when “He [Arguedas] was not surprised when a Scottish poet told him he found Los Rios Profundos [Deep Rivers] untranslatable….he [Arguedas] still saw himself as talking not only about the Andean peoples, but for and to them.” ⁴⁾ This is hinted at in Rothenberg and Taboada's anthology as they maintain that despite Arguedas' innovative writing style, “for his Quechua readers or listeners, some of the old oral structures remain recognizable.” ⁵⁾

The Spanish version (Oda al Jet) is longer than the Quechua version (Jetman, haylli) because when Arguedas rewrites the poem he often adds paraphrases that explain and add to the meaning of the verse in Quechua, attempting, in his own words, “a true, non-literary translation” that avoids elements that are not present in the text in Quechua. He also incorporates culturally foreign terms into Quechua. For example, when the lyrical speaker invokes the Trinity in Quechua (“Dios Yaya, Dios churi, Dios Espíritu Santo”), there is an indigenization of these Christian symbols: Dios Yaya literally translates as ‘man/woman of God’, but it appears as Dios Padre in Spanish; churi is literally ‘son of the father’, but it is translated as Dios hijo.

The poem has the expressive tone of a pre-Hispanic Quechua song and its lyrical speaker voices admiration for a modern object, the jet plane, using animal and nature metaphors –distinctive features of Quechua culture– to describe it: “wind-fish”, “swallow-fish of wind”, “flying fire”, “golden-and-heavenly- swallow”, “immense snow-bird”.

Key Terms

When attempting to interpret “Jetman, Haylli (Ode to the Jet Plane),” it is important to recognize the various cultural and religious beliefs that are sometimes alluded to and explicitly stated in the poem. Specifically, consider the bulleted list of terms and possible explanations listed below.

• “Upper world” ⁶⁾ - In the article, “The mythopoetical model and logic of the concrete in Quechua culture: Cultural and transcultural translation problems,” the authors, Ileana Almeida and Julieta Haidar, maintain that “In ancient mythological space, the world is represented by two kinds of schemes: vertical and horizontal….The Quechua vertical scheme is composed of the upper world or Hanan Pacha, ‘Sky’; the world ‘here’ or Kay Pacha, ‘Earth’: and the Uku Pacha, the underworld.” ⁷⁾

• “the condor” ⁸⁾ - According to WCS Peru, a Wildlife Conservation Society, the Andean Condor’s “name in [Q]uechua is kuntur and the Incas believed it was immortal—it represented the Jananpacha, the upper world of the sky and future.” ⁹⁾

• “God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Ghost” ¹⁰⁾ - On a webpage titled “Resistance and Adaptation,” posted on the National Museum of the American Indian’s site, an explanation for the inclusion of the above line appears. Namely, “Though Spain dismantled their government and religious systems, Andeans found ways to keep their traditions alive. They continued to speak the Quechua and Aymara languages. They adopted the Catholic religion but blended its customs with older beliefs.” ¹¹⁾

• “sacred mountains”¹²⁾ - The National Museum of the American Indian states that “Andean people blended Catholicism with their older beliefs…[and,] [s]ometimes this was simply a matter of reassigning meaning – an apu (mountain spirit) became Christ and Pachamama (Mother Earth) became the Virgin Mary” ¹³⁾ Additionally, in Franklin Pease’s* article, “The Andean Creator God,” Pease maintains that “The wamani (mountains) are second gods, [and] from them is born the water that makes life possible.” ¹⁴⁾

• “God Inkarri” ¹⁵⁾ - In his article, Pease summarizes the story of Inkarri, writing:

The first god is Inkarri, offspring of the Sun and a savage woman. He is the maker of everything that exists on earth. He tied the Sun to the summit of mount Osquonta and locked up the wind in order to conclude his creation. He then decided to found the city of Cuzco and threw a staff of gold from the peak, intending to found the city in the place where the staff fell (they say that the staff fell in the plain of Quellcata that ‘could have been Cuzco’. Inkarri was captured by the spanish king (‘The Inka of the spaniards captured Inkarri, his equal’); he was later decapitated. The head of the god was taken to Cuzco and his body is slowly growing under the earth. As he has no power his laws are not obeyed and his will is not accomplished. When the body of Inkarri is complete he will return, and that day will be the Day of Judgment. As proof that Inkarri is in Cuzco the birds of the coast sing ‘In Cuzco the King’ or ‘Go to Cuzco.’ ¹⁶⁾

*It may be important to note that Pease mentions Arguedas by name in his article.

Possible Interpretations

In a blogpost on WordPress, one user interprets the poem as “Arguedas envis[ioning] a modernity in which Quechua, and indigenous cosmovision, have fully appropriated the fruit of Western technology…” ¹⁷⁾

The poster continues, writing, “The price, or perhaps the advantage, of this techno-indigenism is a blasphemous denial of gods both native and Christian, and an affirmation of the divinity of mankind….” ¹⁸⁾

While the post isn’t technically a scholarly source, the poster does encourage readers to view the poem through a postcolonial lens and provides a starting point for future research. For a more in-depth reading of the poem, readers may want to examine why transportation matters and determine how and why Arguedas used quotation marks throughout the poem.

For those interested in Arguedas' background and his relationship to Quechua, the article "The Quechua World of José María Arguedas" by Earl M. Aldrich Jr. may be helpful.

• Aldrich describes “Arguedas' unique insight into Indian psychology and folkways and his extraordinary linguistic innovations [as] distinguishing his work from preceding and subsequent Indianist fiction.” ¹⁹⁾
• Note that Arguedas was still living when Aldrich's article was published.

• Mudarra Montoya, Américo. 2009. «“Oda Al Jet” De José María Arguedas O La Conflictiva apropiación De La Modernidad». Escritura Y Pensamiento 12 (25):55-62.
• Arguedas, José María. Katatay. Casa de la Literatura Peruana, 2020, https://www.casadelaliteratura.gob.pe/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Katatay.pdf. Accessed 26 March 2025.
• Mancosu, Paola. “Hacia una aproximación ontológica en los Estudios de Traducción: El caso de José María Arguedas.” Meta, volume 67, number 2, august 2022, p. 337–355. https://doi.org/10.7202/1096259ar