Dactilógrafo (Typist ) — Mario Benedetti
Living in Vancouver is living in a first world country. A first world country in which my family in Buenos Aires did not understand why Rosemary and I spent so much money in the last five months of her cat Casi-Casi’s life, injecting him twice a day with insulin. My family would have said,”But he is only a cat.”
On the other hand having been born in a third world country, Argentina, where Spanish is the principal language, means that I can readily find most of my favourite Argentine literature on line. And, incredibly, many of these writers were recorded reading their poems or short stories and available in YouTube. In many cases students of Argentine universities made videos to illustrate the readings.
But I will not lambaste our First World Vancouver Public Library as they had Witness — The Selected Poems of Mario Benedetti. The volume includes translations by Louise B. Popkin.
The Biblioteca Nacional Mariano Moreno in Buenos Aires publishes books. I have in my collection a book with the first page manuscripts (handwritten and with corrections by the authors) of literature of the best of Argentine authors. I have a book that cites all the books that Jorge Luís Borges bought from Mitchell’s and Pygmalion which specialized in books in English and in other languages.
Why is it that our Canadian National Library does not do this sort of thing? Why don’t we have first page manuscripts of our novelists and poets? Why don’t we have recording available of reading by our former Poet Laureate George Bowering?
It would seem that being able to go to over 100 open bookstores in Buenos Aires late at night has to be one advantage of living or visiting a backward country and city.
But I will end this on a positive note for those living in Vancouver. At one time Buenos Aires had bookstores like our very nice MacLeod’s Books. But not anymore! The poem Dactilógrafo in Spanish below and below that the scan of the translation into English
Dactilógrafo — Mario Benedetti
Poemas de la Oficina (1953–1956)
Montevideo quince de noviembre
de mil novecientos cincuenta y cinco
Montevideo era verde en mi infancia
absolutamente vrede y con travías
muy señor nuestro por la presente
yo tuve un libro del que podía leer
veinticinco centímetros por noche
y después del libro del que podía leer
y yo quería pensar en cómo sería eso
de no ser de caer como piedra en un pozo
comunicamos a usted que en esta fecha
hemos efectuado por su cuenta
quién era ah sí mi madre se acercaba
y prendía la luz y no te asustes
y después la apagaba antes que no durmiera
el pago de trescientos doce pesos
a la firma Menéndez & Solari
y sólo veía sombras como caballos
y elefantes y monstruos casi hombres
y sin embargo aquello era mejor
que pensarme sin la savia del miedo
desaparecido como se acostumbra
en un todo de acuerdo con sus órdenes
de fecha siete del correinte
eran tan diferente era verde
absolutamente verde y con tranvías
y qué optimismo tener la ventanilla
sentirse dueño de la calle que baja
jugar con los números de las puertas cerradas
y apostar consigo mismo en términos severos
rogámosle acusar recibo lo ante posible
si terminaba en cuatro o trece o diecisiete
era que iba a reír o a perder o a morirme
de esta comunicación a fin de que podamos
y hacerme tan sólo una trampa por cuadra
registrarlo en su cuenta corriente
absolutamente verde y con travías
y el Prado con caminos de hojas secas
y el olor a eucaliptus y a temprano
saludamos a usted atentamente
y desde allí los años y quién sabe.
Mario Benedetti-Poemas de la Oficina
Dactilógrafo narrated by Mario Benedetti
Jorge Luís Borges Norton Lectures in English (complete) link in this blog
Originally published at blog.alexwaterhousehayward.com.