Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Mexican Poetry

I went to a great reading yesterday, with three Mexican poets: David Huerta, Coral Bracho and Victor Teran. It was in the very Hogwarts venue of the Baronial Hall at Chet's Library. There was a bust of the benefactor on the wall, old paintings, a high beamed roof and big old wooden doors that looked strong enough to keep out an army. It was quite an atmosphere for a reading.

The poets who read were all unknown to me, as is most Mexican poetry. In fact, pretty much all of it till last night. My favourite has to be Coral Bracho's very sensuous poetry, but Victor Teran's reading, with translation read by the very dandyish David Shook, was the best in terms of sound. He spoke his own indigenous language of Isthmus Zapotec, a language spoken by only about 100,000 people but one with its own music, and tonal in its effects. David Huerta's poetry is also very good; and he seemed the most "intellectual" of the three.

All in all, a great evening.

2 comments:

Poetry Translation Centre said...

Glad you enjoyed the reading which was part of our Mexican Poets' Tour. Details of other northwest events (in Leeds and Grasmere) are on our website at www.poetrytranslation.org

Anonymous said...

Dear Steven,
Glad you enjoyed the evening. There is now a clip of Victor Teran and David Shook at the Chetham Library up on YouTube.