Spendy learns about poetry and luke and woops and benny and jenks help teach him things

mixed_biscuits

mixed_biscuits

_________________________
The key to psychological dominance of one's teachers is submitting complete trash every now and then, the kind of thing that should get you kicked off the course or even arrested. It won't happen, and from that moment on you'll be working a foot taller than they will when you pass each other in the corridor.
 
kid charlemagne

kid charlemagne

Well-known member
When the trumpet sounded
everything was prepared on earth,
and Jehovah gave the world
to Coca-Cola Inc., Anaconda,
Ford Motors, and other corporations.
The United Fruit Company
reserved for itself the most juicy
piece, the central coast of my world,
the delicate waist of America.

It rebaptized these countries
Banana Republics,
and over the sleeping dead,
over the unquiet heroes
who won greatness,
liberty, and banners,
it established an opera buffa:
it abolished free will,
gave out imperial crowns, encouraged envy, attracted
the dictatorship of flies:
Trujillo flies, Tachos flies
Carias flies, Martinez flies,
Ubico flies, flies sticky with
submissive blood and marmalade,
drunken flies that buzz over
the tombs of the people,
circus flies, wise flies
expert at tyranny.

With the bloodthirsty flies
came the Fruit Company,
amassed coffee and fruit
in ships which put to sea like
overloaded trays with the treasures
from our sunken lands.

Meanwhile the Indians fall
into the sugared depths of the
harbors and are buried in the
morning mists;
a corpse rolls, a thing without
name, a discarded number,
a bunch of rotten fruit
thrown on the garbage heap.
 
kid charlemagne

kid charlemagne

Well-known member
?

.....

Well-known member
kid charlemagne said:
When the trumpet sounded
everything was prepared on earth,
and Jehovah gave the world
to Coca-Cola Inc., Anaconda,
Ford Motors, and other corporations.
The United Fruit Company
reserved for itself the most juicy
piece, the central coast of my world,
the delicate waist of America.

It rebaptized these countries
Banana Republics,
and over the sleeping dead,
over the unquiet heroes
who won greatness,
liberty, and banners,
it established an opera buffa:
it abolished free will,
gave out imperial crowns, encouraged envy, attracted
the dictatorship of flies:
Trujillo flies, Tachos flies
Carias flies, Martinez flies,
Ubico flies, flies sticky with
submissive blood and marmalade,
drunken flies that buzz over
the tombs of the people,
circus flies, wise flies
expert at tyranny.

With the bloodthirsty flies
came the Fruit Company,
amassed coffee and fruit
in ships which put to sea like
overloaded trays with the treasures
from our sunken lands.

Meanwhile the Indians fall
into the sugared depths of the
harbors and are buried in the
morning mists;
a corpse rolls, a thing without
name, a discarded number,
a bunch of rotten fruit
thrown on the garbage heap.
Click to expand...

I don't know shit about poetry, but I like it.
 
sus

sus

Moderator
A little painful actually how simple it is. There's no mystery in it. No sense of wonder. You may as well read the Wikipedia article for United Fruit Company.

But there are some nice phrases.
 
sus

sus

Moderator
As always, critiques of colonialism in the Americas that don't acknowledge the circularity/eternality of conquest (the conquerors always end up conquered; there's always a bigger fish) are a bit simple-minded. They're written for third graders who have a simple moral view of the world.

But at least it's easy to analyze.
 
luka

luka

Well-known member
yeah theres literally nothing to analyse. its righteous moral outrage. sort of thing that makes craner go purple in the face and spit out his coffee
 
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O

okzharp

Well-known member

A bit better in Spanish though. Not his best.

“La United Fruit Co.” de Canto general

Cuando sonó la trompeta, estuvo
todo preparado en la tierra
y Jehová repartió el mundo
a Coca-Cola Inc., Anaconda,
Ford Motors, y otras entidades:
la Compañía Frutera Inc.
se reservó lo más jugoso,
la costa central de mi tierra,
la dulce cintura de América.

Bautizó de nuevo sus tierras
como "'Repúblicas Bananas",
y sobre los muertos dormidos,
sobre los héroes inquietos
que conquistaron la grandeza,
la libertad y las banderas,
estableció la ópera bufa:
enajenó los albedríos,
regaló coronas de César,
desenvainó la envidia, atrajo
la dictadura de las moscas,
moscas Trujillo, moscas Tachos,
moscas Carias, moscas Martínez,
moscas Ubico, moscas húmedas
de sangre humilde y mermelada,
moscas borrachas que zumban
sobre las tumbas populares,
moscas de circo, sabias moscas
entendidas en tiranía.

Entre las moscas sanguinarias
la Frutera desembarca,
arrasando el café y las frutas
en sus barcos que deslizaron
como bandejas el tesoro
de nuestras tierras sumergidas.

Mientras tanto, por los abismos
azucarados de los puertos,
caían indios sepultados
en el vapor de la mañana:
un cuerpo rueda, una cosa
sin nombre, un número caído
un racimo de fruta muerta
derramada en el pudridero.


Inevitably, the translation is leaden... "like / overloaded trays" is particularly jarring, for example... proof, possibly, that poetry is what gets lost in translation? Bandeja can mean tray, but it's also old latinamerican slang for fool or idiot... so that simile is a weary pun describing the fruit company ships as dumb, unthinking, ignorant of the true value of their cargo, who know the price of everything but the value of nothing... This is also an unsubtle reference back to the possibly-apocryphal tale of early European settlers who described gold "tesoro" (treasure) to the native peoples (yellow, heavy, valuable) but the confused people brought them maize.
 
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other_life

other_life

bioconfused
sus said:
As always, critiques of colonialism in the Americas that don't acknowledge the circularity/eternality of conquest (the conquerors always end up conquered; there's always a bigger fish) are a bit simple-minded. They're written for third graders who have a simple moral view of the world.

But at least it's easy to analyze.
Click to expand...

BBBRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAPPPPPPPP
 
kid charlemagne

kid charlemagne

Well-known member
i will be presenting on it today. it is important to talk about colonialism and what has been done to central america from capitalism... if we do not remember and present on history.... it will repeat itself
 
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mixed_biscuits

mixed_biscuits

_________________________
sus said:
As always, critiques of colonialism in the Americas that don't acknowledge the circularity/eternality of conquest (the conquerors always end up conquered; there's always a bigger fish) are a bit simple-minded. They're written for third graders who have a simple moral view of the world.

But at least it's easy to analyze.
Click to expand...
Yes, I remember my fourth grade teacher saying that more than once.
 
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ver$hy ver$h

ver$hy ver$h

Well-known member
sus said:
As always, critiques of colonialism in the Americas that don't acknowledge the circularity/eternality of conquest (the conquerors always end up conquered; there's always a bigger fish) are a bit simple-minded. They're written for third graders who have a simple moral view of the world.

But at least it's easy to analyze.
Click to expand...

Nobody's conquered the US yet, mind you. And recent history's going to be felt more intensely than ancient. All well and good talking about the Mayans and Aztecs and whomever, but there are people still living who've suffered as a result of US policy.

Also, the hypothetical bigger fish coming along doesn't mean you can't write about these things anyway. I wouldn't begrudge a Korean critiquing Japanese colonialism, despite Japan getting stomped and losing its empire.
 
sus

sus

Moderator
You can write about them but you have to understand the bigger picture you can't confuse your parochial local view with truth
 
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