This is a translation of Gotham, a rap song by Gata Cattana, that Ms Ortiz submitted for the Stephen Spender poetry translation competition. She received a commendation!
Original
No quiero que me digan lo que quiero escuchar
escribo lo que quiero escuchar
dame tregua que ya estoy cansá’ de luchar
pero esta lengua mía se desata
Saliva cotizda como la plata
señales luminosas desde Gotham
el vaso a rebosar y yo la última gota
cayendo como el agua en esas bocas
Primero conquistaremos Manhattan
de Berlín a Beirut y luego Creta
le digo a mi psiquiatra “yo es que soy muy poeta
me gusta mis penitas compartirlas”
Les hago aviones con esas historias
se buscan perlas pero traigo mirra
les cumplo los deseos como Mitra
currádome esa letra, a punto de concebirla
Y si ardiera la ciudad, ve donde te dije ayer
Te dejo los mapas en la mesita
debajo de la ropa los kilos que me quitas
Tú no tienes pestañas, tú tienes estalactitas
yo tengo poco tiempo y mucha prisa
¿Y si ardiera la ciudad y no te volviera a ver?
De los mismos infiernos aparezco con cara de fantasma
pa’ luego darte sustos
tú te crees que son tormentas de Agosto
pero soy yo con la cara de difunta
Apúntate las señas, que partimos
tenemos to’ lo que necesitamos
la boca y las manos, los mimos
que no se diga que no lo intentamos
por los primos y los hermanos
que nos fueron abriendo camino
Tengo una misión en este mundo, te juro que la cumplo
aunque eso suponga mi último destino
Y si ardiera la ciudad, siempre estuve preparada
catástrofe mundial y yo cantando
sería un buen final para mi cuento
estos son los pensamientos que barrunto
ya crecerán las semillitas que alimento
Y si ardiera la ciudad, tengo un traje de cristal y una brujula lunar
Y si ardiera la ciudad, siempre estuve preparda
Y si ardiera la ciudad
Translation
I don’t want them to tell me what I want to hear
I write what I want to hear
Give me a break that I am tir’d of fighting
This tongue of mine let loose
Saliva sought-after like silver
Search lights from Gotham
The glass overflowing and I’m the last drop
First, we will conquer Manthattan
From Berlin to Beirut then Crete
I tell my shrink “the thing is I’m a poetess
I like sharing my penitas”
I make (paper) airplanes with those stories
They are looking for pearls, I bring myrrh
And I make their wishes come true like Mitra
Hustling, about to conceive those lyrics
And if the city burned, go where I told you yesterday
I keep the maps on the nightstand
Under the kilos of clothes that you take off me
You don’t have lashes you have stalactites
I have little time I’m in a hurry
What if the city burned and I never saw you again?
From hell itself I show up as a ghost
To scare you
You think it’s a storm in August
But it’s me, death-faced
Write down the signs, we are leaving
We’ve got all we need
Mouth and hands, the caresses
Let it not be said that we didn’t try
For the cousins and the siblings,
Those that paved the way
I have a mission in this world, I swear I’ll complete it
Even if it’s my final destiny
And if the city burned, I was always ready
A cosmic cataclysm and I’m singing
Would be a good ending to my story
These are the thoughts; this is how I see it
Soon my seedlings will grow
And if the city burned, I’ve got a crystal suit and the moon as my compass
And if the city burned, I was always ready
And if the city burned
Commentary
I chose a song by Gata Cattana who, despite her short life – she died when she was only 25 – has become a loud feminist voice who continues to inspire Spanish women.
I am familiar with daily linguistic challenges, from lacking words to name an everyday object or becoming frustrated when accurately describing my feelings, to acting as an interpreter of my loved ones. This was different, and I found the process refreshing and enjoyable, as it put me in the shoes of the learner again!
These aspects were particularly challenging:
a. Cattana incorporates diatopic, diastratic and diaphasic varieties of Spanish in this song. For example, she uses the Andalusian voice “cansá” as an apocopation of the present participle “cansada”, for which I decided to coin the term “tir’d”.
b. I found the word “penita” to be culturally loaded and considered that its translation (“little sorrow”) made no justice to the feeling she intended to express.
c. The translation enabled me to gain a deeper understanding of the lyrics. Cattana inverts the iconography of traditional adventure stories into a mythical-cosmic journey, with Gotham as its starting point. She also subverts the common depiction of female characters as passive damsels in distress awaiting to be saved. Instead, the poetic voice is a female who acts as the guide on this journey.
d. I also noted the dramatic irony in the song, as there are references to death which made me reflect on the tragedy of her death but the power of her words to transcend.
As a teacher, I strive to instill my passion for Spanish in my students. I hope that sharing this project with them enthuses them to further embrace languages and inspires them to take on challenges in their Spanish learning journey as well as in their lives.
The Linguist NLCS 