PODCAST · arts
The Smelting Process Podcast
by The Smelting Process
Regularly published podcasts of literary translations from works by major & marginal writers from Latin American countries & elsewhere. Episodes also include interviews with artists, writers & film-makers who address multilingual & multi-cultural issues in their work.
Episodes
-
slavic soul party!
dance the dust up
-
Is there a ghost?
fdkhjssdfjhks
-
Jorge Eielson #3 - mutilated body
In this poem from dark night of the body, the Peruvian poet, Jorge Eielson takes his exploration of the physiological to a deeper level, a level of dissection without disgust, without moral sentiments of any kind. The poet counts extremities "as were they cherries or grapes". One problem that...
-
Fernando Pessoa #07 - Demogorgon
It seems intuitive that truth ought to be sought after by any person, no matter how the degree of seriousness, the frequency, the method. We believe in truth. We believe in everyday truths & hold people accountable for them. In fact, while the truth can set you free, it can also lock you up or…
more -
Jorge Eielson #2 - melancholic body
The Peruvian poet, Jorge Eduardo Eielson, explores the double-meaning of the "body" in his collection "dark night of the body". In this context, it must be understood anatomically & textually alike: it is the human body that is the body of work, or the body-as-text. Eielson's anatomical language–…
more -
Jorge Eielson #01 - prior body
Jorge Eduardo Eielson is one of Peru's most unrecognized poets & artists, which is greatly do to the fact that he expatriated to Italy early in his life, only to return twice. The poem "prior body" comes from a short collection called "noches oscura del cuerpo" (dark night of the body), published...
-
Carlos Drummond #01 - In the Middle of the Road
The poetry of Brazilian poet, Carlos Drummond de Andrade, saw several transformations throughout its development, with the publication of 31 books in the poets lifetime. This poem was originally published in 1928 in the magazine Antropofagia. The simplicity of the language adds to the focus of…
more -
Fernndo Pessoa #06 - The Chess Game
Under the heteronym, Ricardo Reis, the Portuguese poet Fernando Pessoa wrote poetry altogether different from that which he wrote at the hand of Álvaro de Campos, whose poems have been presented previously on this blog & podcast. Reis has come to be known as the "sad Epicurian". This means that,...
-
César Vallejo #09 - Individual and Society
Also from Against the Professional Secret, Vallejo here places us in one of his favorite scenes: before the tribunal. This allows the Peruvian poet to explore the ideas of justice, guilt, innocence & responsibility through numerous perspectives. Indeed, his three month incarceration in Peru was...
-
Oliverio Girondo #06 - Ex-voto
Girondo published his first collection of poetry in 1922 (the same year that brought us other cutting edge works, such as Finnegans's Wake, The Waste Land, Trilce, The Enormous Room, Paulicéia Desvairada, The Marine Cemetery, etc). In this poem, "Exvoto"– the Latin derivation meaning "offering"...
-
César Vallejo #08 - The Co-substantial Movement of Matter
In a collection of short prose pieces titled, Against the Professional Secret, César Vallejo formulated a measured response to Cocteau's essay The Professional Secret. By 1926, Vallejo had already expatriated from Peru & was living in France, from which he would venture off to Russia twice in…
more -
Oliverio Girondo #06 - Flog Me!
In this poem from Persuasion of the Days, Girondo takes up the theme of perversity by demanding that he be flogged, precisely because he deserves it. It is curious that his "defense" is a series of acts which he never took part in, and for this, he deserves the punishment. The attitude of the…
more -
Oliverio Girondo #05 - Unending Astonishment
The sense of deficiency comes through this poem in the poet's declaration of the ineluctable. Coming from Persuasion of the Days, Girondo here uses the dog as an emblem of man; a dog which cannot be described, which is one of a kind &, ultimately, which makes him want to "break a chair". There is…
more -
Oliverio Girondo #04 - It's the Drool
This poem as well comes from Persuasion of the Days– one of Girondo's later works –& it is representative, in form & content, of that collection. There is an unmistakable feeling of nausea that emanates from these lines; not just a feeling of extreme disgust, but also that of groundlessness…
more -
Oliverio Girondo #03 - Wait
Another poem from Girondo's collection, Persuasion of the Days, here we find a sort of ode to procrastination. The presence of a somewhat physiological vocabulary calls to our attention & directs us toward the concrete. The length syntactical phrasing is characteristic of Girondo in…
more -
Oliverio Girondo #02 - Tiredness
Only so much can be done in a day, in a week, in a month, in a year... only so much. What happens when pro-activeness deflates & the bleary eyes only see those activities beyond the attainable? In this poem, from Persuasion of the Days, the Argentine poet Oliverio Girondo explores the…
more -
Fernando Pessoa #05 - Lisbon With Its Houses
Using his hometown as the main image of the poem, Pessoa here touches on the feeling of nostalgia which arises out of insomnia: "I want to imagine anything, & something else always comes up". In our modern vocabulary, we might say that he suffers from anxiety, but, what does this really mean?…
more -
Fernando Pessoa #04 - Yes, It's Me
If we can make the stark (& perhaps unfair) distinction that one is either contained by the world or that one contains the world inside oneself, then Pessoa, in this poem signed by Campos, belongs to the second category. Campos here contains the world, observes it like a little crystal ball…
more -
Fernando Pessoa #03 - Almost
In a curious way, rearranging the apartment, or even just one room in it, can provide a deep sensation of Order. We may tend to attribute the value we place on Order to our own productivity (i.e. having an orderly desk makes it easier to pay the bills on time), but there seems to be more to it…
more -
Fernando Pessoa #02 - Original Sin
In this concise yet dramatic poem, Pessoa uses Álvaro de Campos, the naval engineer, to pose a series of questions whose answers are only available through the act of living: what's with my reality, that I only have a life? The figure of the Caesar at the end is bound to arouse humor, but what…
more -
César Vallejo #07 - Trilce LXX
Trilce LXX, another poem by the Peruvian poet, César Vallejo, again presents the reader with the decision of how to interpret the abnormal line-breaks or enjambments. For those of you familiar with Lima, you'll notice that the capitalized "Barrancos" does not only refer us to "cliffs", but also…
more -
Fernando Pessoa #01 - Reality
Álvaro de Campos is one of the heteronyms used by the Portuguese poet, Fernando Pessoa. The others he used were Ricardo Reis, Alberto Cairo & in his prose, Bernardo Soares. The use of these must be differentiated from simply using pen-names, since these were truly characters, each with their own...
-
César Vallejo #06 - Trilce LV
One of the more daring poems of the collection, Trilce LV has aroused considerable dispute as to whether its form is that of a "prose poem", which would mean that the lines get wrapped at the ends without consideration to the line-breaks, or whether it is not a prose poem, which would mean that...
-
César Vallejo #05 - Trilce LIII
One of the central themes of Trilce is Time, with a capital T. Vallejo is never at a loss for ways in which this theme can be woven into that heteroclite poetic which emerges from his most daring work. The language of Trilce LIII is difficult, to say the least, & after recovering from the...
-
César Vallejo #04 - Trilce XXXIV
In a unique critical essay written in Paris, though published in Lima (El Comercio, 1924), Vallejo lays his cards on the table & openly discusses the shortcomings of North American poetry in the 20's. In that piece, he suggests that Imagists, such as Pound & Doolittle, were simply riding the...
-
César Vallejo #03 - Trilce XXIX
Another translation of a poem by César Vallejo's "Trilce". One of the shortest poems of the collection, Trilce XXIX reaches a surprising level of complexity & depth in just 9 short lines. The "tedio enfrascado" is emblematic of the book as a whole; it is the same tedium or boredom that comes...
-
César Vallejo #02 - Trilce XX
Vallejo's second collection of poems, Trilce, does not bear any other titles than roman numerals. There do not appear to be any organic sequences in the collection, however, numerous scholars have pointed out that certain poems can be grouped together, based on their thematic content, the poetic...
-
César Vallejo #01 - Trilce XII
This poem is drawn from César Vallejo's avant-garde masterpiece, Trilce. Originally published in 1922, it stands alongside other monumental works of literary Modernism, such as The Wasteland by Eliot, Finnegan's Wake by Joyce, The Enormous Room by Cummings, The Marine Cemetery by Verlaine and 20...
-
Oliverio Girondo #01 - Gratitude
One defining characteristic of Oliverio Girondo is his ability to explore new poetic forms. One only needs to compare a poem like his– Gratitude –from his later collection Persuasion of the Days, with any of the poems from his first or section collections: Twenty Poems to be Read on the Tram and...
We're indexing this podcast's transcripts for the first time — this can take a minute or two. We'll show results as soon as they're ready.
No matches for "" in this podcast's transcripts.
No topics indexed yet for this podcast.
Loading reviews...
ABOUT THIS SHOW
Regularly published podcasts of literary translations from works by major & marginal writers from Latin American countries & elsewhere. Episodes also include interviews with artists, writers & film-makers who address multilingual & multi-cultural issues in their work.
HOSTED BY
The Smelting Process
Loading similar podcasts...
Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does The Smelting Process Podcast have?
The Smelting Process Podcast currently has 29 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is The Smelting Process Podcast about?
Regularly published podcasts of literary translations from works by major & marginal writers from Latin American countries & elsewhere. Episodes also include interviews with artists, writers & film-makers who address multilingual & multi-cultural issues in their work.
How often does The Smelting Process Podcast release new episodes?
The Smelting Process Podcast has 29 episodes. Check the episode list to see recent publication dates and frequency.
Where can I listen to The Smelting Process Podcast?
You can listen to The Smelting Process Podcast on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts The Smelting Process Podcast?
The Smelting Process Podcast is created and hosted by The Smelting Process.
URL copied to clipboard!