Nick Rattner
Photo by Emelie Griffin
Bio
Nick Rattner has served as editor-in-chief of Gulf Coast: A Journal of Literature and Fine Arts and as editor/collective member for Ugly Duckling Presse. Recent work has appeared in RHINO, Fence, Colorado Review, the Cortland Review, Sixth Finch, Pleiades, Hayden’s Ferry Review, Denver Quarterly, Salt Hill, and Asymptote. At present, he is translating the work of Spanish poet Juan Andrés García Román, with the recent chapbook Little Songs (2022) from Foundlings Press and a forthcoming book The Adoration (2023) from Quantum Prose. He lives in Troy, New York.
Project Description
To support the translation from the Spanish of the poetry collection Poesía fantástica by Spanish poet Juan Andrés García Ramón. García Ramón is the author of seven poetry collections, all of which touch on such themes as the loss of a belief in love and the collapse of natural ecologies. This project contains a selection of poems from several of his collections, as well as unpublished work from 2007 through 2019.
Roughly a decade ago, a friend and I traveled to Perú to visit the birthplace of César Vallejo, a poet we both revere. In preparation for the trip, I memorized Vallejo’s famous poem “Los heraldos negros.” Once in Perú, when people asked why we had chosen to visit, I would answer by reciting the poem. Responses to this bizarre, impromptu recitation surprised us. On one occasion, a cab driver joined in; same thing happened with a bartender. A few people said, “Oh, Vallejo, okay, let me introduce you to my friend.” These introductions, as it turned out, were to poets. Two of these poets wound-up gifting me copies of their books, which were the first texts I ever translated, starting me down a lifelong path. I will always be grateful to them and to Vallejo for opening this door.
Perhaps owing to these early experiences, I see the possibility for kinship as the basis of translation. Complex, often playful, and constantly iterative, translation, and maybe any kind of writing, posits a network of belonging in the threading and unthreading of language. This household spirit is what drew me to the work of Juan Andrés García Román, who is also a translator. His work, even at its oddest and most surreal, concerns itself with a ‘lyric you’ as much as with a ‘lyric I.’ I’m grateful to him for the opportunity to spend time with the work, and to the National Endowment for the Arts for supporting my translation. This support, a form of hospitality extended to translators and the authors they translate, keeps many lights on.
The grant is also a tribute to the guidance and encouragement of teachers and mentors Kavita Singh, Jamie Ferguson, and Roberto Tejada. And to many friends and acquaintances who read rough drafts and provided insights that shape my view of translation and have opened so many pathways to belonging. Abrazos!
About Juan Andrés García Román
Juan Andrés García Román holds a PhD in literary theory and works as a teacher and translator, focusing mainly on German and English literature. He has published numerous books of poetry: El fósforo astilado (2008, DVD Ediciones), La adoración (2011, DVD Ediciones), Fruta para el pajarillo de la superstición (Pre-Textos, 2016), and, most recently, an edition of his selected poetry, Poesía fantástica. Resumen primero 2007–2019 (Pre-Textos, 2020). His work has been translated into Italian, English, German, and Armenian and has appeared in many anthologies of contemporary Spanish poetry, including Grand Tour (Carl Hanser Verlag, 2018). His most recent work as a translator and scholar features a critical edition of H. P. Lovecraft’s sonnets cycle Funghi from Yuggoth: Un tenue éter indeterminado (Pre-Textos-2019), and a critical anthology of Romantic German poets Floreced Mientras (Galaxia Gutenberg, 2017). He has been awarded fellowships from the MacDowell Colony, Vermont Studio Center, and Villa Waldberta (Munich, Germany). He lives in Granada, Spain.