Abstract
Yaxkin Melchy is a young self-published Mexican poet and founding member of the Red de los poetas salvajes [Savage poets' network], an online community of emerging poets and artists based in Mexico City. This article reflects on the process of translating Melchy's most recent book of poetry Los Planetas [The Planets], published in 2012. It concludes with a sample of four translated poems.
Melchy's work is remarkable for many reasons. Its online context allows for the inclusion of large-scale visual artwork alongside the poetry, as well as active links to videos and other media, and provides unique opportunities for reader interactivity. The poetry also possesses a significant degree of wordplay and intertextuality, combining innovative and novel language use with smatterings of scientific jargon, hypnagogic space fantasies, and a metaliterary penchant for self-reflection. The result is a bizarre and scathing critique of hypermodern society; a truly unique cosmos populated by aliens, angels, dinosaurs, poets and dictators.
Melchy's work is remarkable for many reasons. Its online context allows for the inclusion of large-scale visual artwork alongside the poetry, as well as active links to videos and other media, and provides unique opportunities for reader interactivity. The poetry also possesses a significant degree of wordplay and intertextuality, combining innovative and novel language use with smatterings of scientific jargon, hypnagogic space fantasies, and a metaliterary penchant for self-reflection. The result is a bizarre and scathing critique of hypermodern society; a truly unique cosmos populated by aliens, angels, dinosaurs, poets and dictators.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 1-22 |
| Number of pages | 22 |
| Journal | Reinvention: A Journal of Undergraduate Research |
| Volume | 6 |
| Issue number | 2 |
| Publication status | Published - 2013 |
Keywords
- Translation studies
- poetry translation
- Mexico
- alienation
- surrealism
- cyberspace