Jack’s guest is polyglot poet, translator, and editor Patricio Ferrari.
Born to Piemontesi and Calabresi immigrants who settled in Buenos Aires at the turn of the 20th century, Patricio Ferrari left Argentina at the age of 16 to attend high school and play soccer in the United States as part of the Rotary Exchange Program. He holds a Master’s degree in Comparative Literature from the Sorbonne-Nouvelle, an MFA in Poetry from Brown University, and a Ph.D. in Linguistics from the University of Lisbon. A polyglot poet, he has translated poetry from English (Frank Stanford, Laynie Browne), French (Alejandra Pizarnik), Hindi (Vidrohi), and Portuguese (Fernando Pessoa, António Osório). Ferrari edited two journals in the United States on Pessoa’s English writings (Tagus Press, 2015 & Gávea Brown, 2018) and published eight editions of Pessoa’s works, including the first critical edition of his Poèmes français [French Poems] (Editions de la Différence, 2014) and Teatro Estático [Static Theater] (Tinta-da-china, 2017). He recently edited and co-translated with Forrest Gander The Galloping Hour: French Poems by Alejandra Pizarnik (New Directions, 2018). Ferrari resides in New York City and teaches at Rutgers University, while serving as Managing Director of San Patricio Language Institute––a school in the Greater Buenos Aires his mother founded in 1971. His multilingual poetry collection trilogy (Silveriver, Speaking Ame®ica, Elsehere) is forthcoming.
These poems are from Elsehere:
OF RIVERS
Rivers are not selfish
rivers, not a gentle
thing
rivers are to the land
what this heartwood
to ash
a river is
thresholds
run. Don’t run
…
SEEKONK
Spelling, as anything in riverine life
depends on what side of the mouth you’re on
sucki, black
honk, goose
the first recorded use of the Wampanaog word honk is in Thoreau’s Walden
honking goose
…
MIGRATION
Goose mist by the Seekonk
reaches a beech
the underside of leaves
opalescent
Swan Point—
nightfur of gifts
distance summons the body
it offers us a south
…
MARE
One of those Janus words
in English, a female horse
in Italian, the sea
like belladonna
deadly poison in one mouth
beautiful lady in another
just two examples of something essential about language––
remain unfaithful to me, I love you words
alone
I write this by water, other waters
there is generosity to water
abalone, little ears of the sea grant another talk, tack
hold fast, release
the sea unseas what is not sea
And these are from SILVERIVER:
I will not try to remember the way it happened This is neither a memoir nor a buckle of wind, windring Leaves of rain, oblique rain Or years stretching water, forewaters through amniotic fluids and moonhooks On a hostship, this contiguity of waters With one transatlantic premise: Buenos Aires –– Madonna di Bonaria, del Buen Ayre –– mudonna
…
Let me begin with the body Birdive with me Everything begins in the body Hands the size of paperbirds, pájaros de papel Paper over rock, rock breaks scissors scissorsssssssssssssssssasssssssssssssssssssssssssssay––how do you say this in your Tongue requires a body Gravity of body Heft Or hearth Some act, scent The first home
…
acrosssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss
ssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss
sssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssilveriver
…
ninna nanna ninna o
ragà balla bò
…
neither nether neither nor
boy raggèd ball