R D L., Belvidere, N.J.

July 7, 1941.

Dear Mr. Fitts,-

Thank you for your kind letter of June 29, which has finally reached
me here. Yes; I did have some talk with Mr. Bishop, and would be very
glad to assist in the translations. I do not know how much I can get
through, but if you have any material on hand, I can get started at any
time: my preference is for briefer lyrics, if possible, but I don't
want to be too choosy.

One question comes to mind in this connection: what rights would the
translator have as regards magazine publication of any of this material ?
would it be all right to place it, if possible, on a 50-50 basis between
translator and author ? It is not a very pressing contingency, but I
have been working on a lead which may pan out, to have a quarterly page
or double page in a weekly magazine, - I have some material on hand to
start with, from one Bartra, a Catalan poet now in Cuba, and I have
correspondents who, I think, can be interested in sending me further
stuff, though know, with Latin America, it is often far from promise
to fulfillment. What do you think on this point ?

Is the anthology to be Latin-American strictly, or are exiled Spaniards,
now Latin American, to be included ?

Well: I shall be glad to help, and am free to get started at your convenience.

R D L., Belvidere, NJ.

Tues July 15, 1941.

Dear Mr. Fitts,-

Thank you for your letter and the material that arrived under separate cover. It looks interesting, and I will get right after it; in fact, I have been putting in the better part of this morning on the Epitaph of Alfonsina Storni.

My method in general, working both on the poems in the *And Spain Sings* anthology, and on Iorca, has been roughly this: first, I read over the poem in the original, and try to get the cadences to fix themselves; then, here or there, I locate a phrase that, coming over into English, seems to represent that cadence; and then I set to work to build the poems around that cadence: I keep my eyes open, if the original is in regular form, or rhymed, for rhymes in English that will not look forced; failing that, for assonances, anyway. I find it useful, occasionally, to use the singular number for the plural, or to use the definite article for the possessive pronoun or adjective: Spanish poetry is more fond of rhetoric than we like, and hard, sometimes, to reconcile with our current insistence on austerity in lyricism; but I must not write you an essay on the subject, but let the results speak. Now and then I have to take a liberty; when I do, it is always with the idea that I must translate the poem, not just the words of the poem.

Will you let me know, when you can, what the official sanction is as regards magazine disposal ? I would like to build up material in view of this halfway promise of a page or so in a literary section of a magazine; and to that end, also, any brief information as to who the writers are might be helpful to have at hand.

Shall I return the originals, or may I keep them on hand ?

Are you planning only to use material that has been printed in book form in Latin-American countries ? When I was in Mexico in 1938, the newspaper Nacional was running a contest- " Who is the best poet in Mexico ?" - readers voted for their favorites, I think the winner polled some 8000 ballots. Quite a bit of verse was printed in El Nacional, and I saved quite a file of that material; shall I look it through and see what there is of interest in it ? #

I suppose you must have the name of Nicolas Guillen on your list? I have here a book of his called *España*; I have also *Agua y Cauce*, by the Venezuelan poet Miguel Otero Silva.

By the end of the week I hope to be able to send you an item or so; I understand that versions I submit are of course subject to your editorial criticism, to approve, reject, or suggest correction. If I find stuff intractable, from my point of view and within my limitations, I will try to expedite its return, so that others may get right after it.

It is fun to be doing this; and I hope useful.

Salud, victoria, y pesetas !

Ralphumpius

R D L., Belvidere, N.J.

July 17, 1941.

Dear Mr. Fitts,-

Here are some beginnings.

It will not break my heart if you want to try somebody else on the
German Pardo Garcia poems. He seems to me either pretty ordinary
or actually phony; or else I don't get him at all. He seems to work
with a tricked-up vocabulary, verbalizing nouns, etc; and while his
brand of mysticism may be respectable and authentic, I can't help the
feeling that there is some faking about it. I have done two of
the things, but have to give up entirely on La Gloria, and send you
the original herewith. Am I to return the other originals ?

I feel quite pleased with Alfonsina's Epitaph. Do you think the play
on words in the final couplet is clear enough ? with the Spanish
text to compare on the opposite page, the reader who has Spanish will
get it, I think. I have had to give the idea a shade of a twist there;
it isn't exactly as she put it, but it is as she would have to put it
if she were working in English, where we can not rely on the feminine
rhyme. But as it comes out it looks, in English, like a poem, and
sounds like one.

I will keep working right along on Maya and Tiempo; and also scrutin-
ize and search the material I have on hand.

I did not know what your method is to be as regards naming translators,
and have therefore only lightly indicated my name in pencil on each
sheet.

It is really a pleasure to be engaged on this. Thank you.

Enels.

PRESERVATION PHOTOCOPY: ORIGINAL MATERIAL RESTRICTED

2

thology & sent off to my surrealist expert Walsh. Is either in *Agua y cauce*? The texts should probably be established, as the anthology is abominably printed & was apparently proofread by a paretic Inca in a state of zooscopy...

No, we are not necessarily limiting the material to poems that have appeared in book form. Is there anything in *Nacional*? And did you run into a poet named Bernardo Ortiz de Montellano there? He used to edit 'Contemporáneos', which was coeval with Hound & Horn, of blessed memory. I like some of his stuff immensely, and, indeed, want to carry his wife's translation of his 'Primero Sueño' --(ethnological note: I have read so much about sueños and caderas and muslos and sangre and muerte and jadeares and lluvias during the last two weeks that my picture of América del Sur with interest Jacques Barzun) -- in the book; but everyone I write to about him merely says '¡Éh nomás?. . .' Particularly my Chief Consultant, but as he is a bolivian who maintains that Gabriela Mistral never wrote a line of true verse in her life, I am not particularly impressed by him.

But now I've got to dive into the jungles of Uruguay again. . . . but before I dive, can you tell me about a poem of yours which I read a hell of a long time ago -- 15 years anyhow -- a sonnet, of which I remember only the last four words: 'O Rolfe, keep warm'. I have remembered it ever since, I mean the experience of reading it; and haven't seen it since. . .

Yours,

D. F.

RD 1., Belidere, N.J.

Thurs. July 24, 1941.

Dear Mr. Fitts,-

This will be a pretty long letter, I am afraid.

I am enclosing:

1. The originals of the poems by Germán Pardo García, Alfonsina Storni, and Rafael Maya, of which I have previously sent translations.

2. The originals and translations of poems by Jaime Torres Bodet and Juana de Ibarbourou.

3. On a separate sheet, some notes on your comments on poems previously sent, particularly the epitaph of Alfonsina Storni.

Thanks for the new batch. I have read over, but not yet really got down to work, on Angel Miguel Queremel and Raúl Otero Reiche. In the Queremel Cancioncilla ¹ note a word I am not exactly sure of - Malasentraña! - evidently some sort of interjection of bad portent- would "Evil the day!" render it, do you think?

The poem by Bodet seems to me very good. There is a directness about it almost Rilkean. The Juana poem is good in spots: where she sticks to the sensuous appeal of the lullaby, she is good; where she sticks in ideas, pretty feeble - a most uneven poem.

No, ¹ did not meet Ortiz de Montellano in Mexico; his name is one of those mentioned in the Nacional contest. I have several pages of the poems printed during that contest, but could hardly estimate them on the strength of my present reading of them; there was some talk that the paper was to print an anthology of them, but I do not know whether it was done. Perhaps Luis Cardoza y Aragon, who was then on the paper, could advise you on this point.

In the España collection of Guillen's there is a good deal of rhetoric around the war in Spain; and some elegies for Lorca. I suppose the collection should include some of the poetic tributes to Lorca; have you anything else along these lines? should I copy one or two of these poems and send them to you, either before or with translations?

Sienbra/Enricijada

Both the poems you mention are in the Agua y Cauce collection of Otero Silva's. He is a determinedly proletarian poet; has one poem, El Taladro, in which all the oil companies get a good going-over by name. Would you be interested in anything of this kind? It might, if such matters are significant, remove some suspicion of Imperialismo Yanqui, if such aspects were presented: what a gesture from the Rockefeller Committee to print

Las cifras de Rockefeller
termómetro de los dólares,
crecen, crecen, crecen, crecen,
etc.

but I don't want
to get in any
fights - about this
or anything else.

Have you Millen Brand on your list of translators? He knows Spanish; it is not generally known that he is poet as well as novelist: he has completed a collection of his own verse, I believe.

4. Enclosed also a copy of my own poem, to which you refer. It is gratifying to have any poem remembered fifteen years; and this is one which I would particularly like to have people remember. It was in my first book *Europa*, published in 1929 by Crosby Gaige, and is one of the half dozen from that book that I am including in the collection called *Out of the Jewel*, which Scribners is going to issue in the late winter or early spring of 1942. Thank you.

Rolf Hirschler

R D L., Belvidere, N.J.

July 28, 1941.

Dear Mr. Fitts,-

Herewith enclosed the two poems by Queremel and two by Reiche: this completes the material that has been sent me. Do you want me to tackle those two poems by Otero Silva, *Encrucijada*, and *Siembra*, and copy the text as well; or try something else of his that appeals to me; or try to see what can be done with any of the Guillen things: or would you rather find something else: or have I done enough ? I like to keep going as long as the stuff is reasonably sympathetic; and you are satisfied.

The two poems by Reiche I found rather difficult to work. I don't know how you feel about it, but that fancy-simple stuff bores me. I suppose there may be a tradition within which it is valid, but even within that possible tradition, this looks a little suspect. Maybe somebody else could make more out of it than I have, but I think the material is just frail. The same thing is true, but not so much so, of the Queremel pieces.

I include a translation, made after I started this note, of Silva's *EL FAMPADO*. It seems a wholesome exercise after Reiche: should I copy the original, or don't you want it?

TALADRO

R D 1., Belvidere, N.J.

July 30, 1941.

Dear Mr. Fitts,-

Returning herewith your carbons of the Otero Silva poems. I
found one or two errors...In the copy he gave me of Agua y Cauce, he starred
two poems, *Mataron a García Lárcia*, and *Las Manos del viejo Martín*.

Millen Brand's address is Barto, Pa. Right now, or within a
few days, he may be at that Summer Writer's Conference, at, I think, Jeffer-
son, New Hampshire; the League of American Writers, at 381 Fourth Avenue,
would probably forward mail to him.

I have no particular influence with Dr. Williams, knowing him only
through his work on the anthology I edited.

Why not, for those negro things, Langston Hughes ? He knows
Spanish.

Another negro poet who comes to my mind is the Haitian poet Jacques
Roumains: I do not know how well he knows English or Spanish, but am sure he
must have some familiarity with both languages: is any of his original work
included ? - he writes French; or is the anthology entirely Spanish?

R D 1., Belvidere, NJ.

Aug 2, 1941.

Dear Mr. Fitts,-

Here is a penultimate ( I hope ) version of the Jewish graveyard.
You take the last word on it, and with it.

You have not said how it is proposed to recognize the translations,
whether not at all, or by initials, or names, or how: in any case, If there
is to be any recognition, I think this one should be jointly signed, or
initialled: there is enough collaboration in it that I do not feel entitled
to complete responsibility.

On the Ay's and Malasentrañases in those other poems, any suggestion
is all right with me. I do not think, though, that the peasant is too averse
to expressions with a literary flavor.

What about Ralph Bates for some of this stuff ? He has not published
any poetry, to my knowledge, but he is something of a musician, and has made,
I think, translations of some of the Spanish songs; and he certainly knows
his Spanish folk: in Mexico, too.

R D 1., Belvidere, NJ.

Aug. 14, 1941.

Dear Mr. Pitts,-

Bodet seems to me a real poet; his reading a little more soph-
isticated than some of them - am I wrong in thinking I can see signs of the
influence of Lorca, perhaps even of Rilke and Eliot ?

But, by God, he is hard to translate. The *Dance* poem seems
simple, and there are many images, so that it ough to come over; but
the corresponding English words are very difficult to get into happy com-
binations. In *Poetry*, I put it in the third person instead of the second:
the thou/you dilemma is thus avoided, and apostrophe so much rarer in Eng-
lish verse. The surrealist *City* was easier.

Don't you think it might be a good idea if there were a 100 year
ambargo on the use of sueno and sangre and maybe half a dozen others ?

By the way, do you happen to know what are, in Spanish, the opening
lines of a poem by Rafael Alberti, which begins " A spectre is haunting
Europe " ? I tried to check this at 42d Street, but could not find it: I ✓
believe Flores made a translation of it; I think the title and the opening
lines are identical.

cordialmente

Alfonsina Storni [1892-1938]

EPITÁFIO PARA MI TUMBA

Aquí descanso yo: dice Alfonsina,
En epítafio claro, al que se inclina.

Aquí descanso yo, y en este pozo,
Pues que no siento, me solazo y gozo.

Los turbios ojos muertos ya no giran;
Los labios, desgranados, no suspiran.

Duermo mi sueño eterno a pierna suelta,
Me llaman y no quiero darme vuelta.

Tengo la tierra encima y no la siento;
Llega el invierno y no me enfria el viento.

El verano mis sueños no madura;
La primavera el pulso no me apura.

El corazón no tiembla, salta o late;
Fuera estoy de la línea de combate.

¿Qué dice el ave aquella, caminante?
Tradúceme su canto perturbante:

"Nace la luna nueva; el mar perfuma;
"Los cuerpos bellos bañarse de espuma.

"Va junto al mar un hombre que en la boca
"Lleva una abeja libadora y loca.

"Bajo la blanca tela el torso quiere
"El otro torso que palpita y muere.

"Los marineros sueñan en las proas;
"cantan muchachas desde las canoas.

"Zarpan los buques y en sus claras cuevas
"Los hombres parten hacia tierras nuevas.

"La mujer que en el suelo está dormida
"Y en su epítafio ríe de la vida,

"Como es mujer, grabó en su sepultura
"Una mentira aun: la de su hartura".

from OCRE [1925]

31 July 1941

Compañero mío:

Here is a version of your version. Please don't be angry until I try to account for the changes I've suggested.

'Môles' is a plural noun made from a hebrew adjective 'môle', meaning 'full'. The liturgical chant for the dead has the refrain 'God is full of mercy', and 'môle' is the most prominent word. Hence, just as we get the word 'dirge' from the first word of the antiphon 'Dirige, Dómine, gressus meos' in the Mass for the Dead, the Jewish dirges are called 'môles'. — I read 'noses' instead of 'nostrels' for 'narices' because I think that CT is alluding to the Jewish conformation of the bridge of the nose. — 'Realengo' means 'realm' or 'patrimony' in castellano; but in argentino it also has the sense of 'care', 'burden'. I think that CT is using it as a sort of pun: hence my attempt, which otherwise looks diluted, I know. 'Cesante' also has the special sense of 'discharged' (he quedó cesante: I was fired). — I think that the 'one way highway' is pretty bold, since the idea is that of a sea-crossing; 'sin vuelta' is rather 'without return' than 'one-way' (wch wd be 'dirección única', like the french 'sens unique'); & 'definitivamente' is rather 'at last' than 'for ever'. — In 3, I have tried to get 'dolor ruidoso' literally in place of your 'ruído doloroso'; and you omitted 'supino satisfecho': I'm not sure of the depreciative tone in 'smug & supina', but am inclined to find it there because of the contemptuous 'a precio fijo'. — In 4, 'ocio' has a tinge of 'idleness' that you don't get in 'round'. How abt 'ease'? 'Resurrection' is an attempt to give the flavour of that hellishly learned word 'palingenesia'. — In 5, isn't there an idea of the 'condecoraciones' dwarfing, by their very hugeness, this city? I am tempted to try 'shrunken' for 'enana', mas no sé. And finally, since 'grey' is a deliberately arty word, I shd like to remember somehow its parent 'grex', and read 'flock'.

All these things are tentative. Do they seem to you all right?

I'll send some poems today or tomorrow. Just now I'm waiting for the rest of the gang to catch up with us.

Yours,

DF

December 11, 1941

Mr. Rolf Humphries
35-34 77th Street
Jackson Heights, N. Y.

Dear Mr. Humphries:

Dudley Fitts has just sent me copies of the correspondence which has re-
cently passed between you. Let me say at once that I regret exceedingly
that any situation has arisen which has caused you pain or inconvenience,
and that I am disposed to do all within my power to so arrange things
that you will feel you can allow your work to stand in the anthology.

I think you know how long I have admired your work, both as a poet and
as a translator of poetry and I am sure that the anthology will be much
the poorer if you feel it necessary to withdraw your contribution.

Having selected Dudley Fitts as editor, I had hoped to leave the respon-
sibility of editing, as far as possible, in his hands. He is performing
his work with rare conscientiousness and has devoted much time and labor
to bring the anthology to the point where it would satisfy him - far
beyond anything that could be recompensed by the sum which he agreed to
accept for his services. I have not, therefore, wished to interfere with
his decisions, particularly since my own competence in Spanish is extremely
limited.

As to the payment arrived at between Dudley Fitts and James Laughlin at
the rate of 25¢ a line, this would be a more workable scheme than the one
which I had originally foreseen, which was payment by the page and which,
in their opinion (and I was obliged to agree with them), would have worked
great injustice on a number of the translators. A page might include
eight lines or twenty-eight. To pay for both at the same rate did not
seem quite fair. Payment by line, on the whole, would seem to work out
much better. It was never, however, my intention that the translators
should be underpaid, and I can assure you that if you will allow your
translations to remain, I believe the amount at our disposal is sufficient
to allow me to see that you are paid - I won't say all that you deserve -
but as much as you were led to expect.

I will take this question up immediately with both Fitts and Laughlin and
endeavor to arrange things to your satisfaction.

cc: Mr. Dudley Fitts

wd be one thing. But I haven't. And since none of us is going to get rich
on this job, I thought that I should chisel as much for more poesy as I could.

As for priority of first payments. It had nothing to do with merit, or
with the alphabet, or with anything but my methods of working. Laughlin asked
me for $500 worth of vouchers, and I snatched them out of the files more or less
at random. I say 'more or less' because I did give priority to a man whose work
was finished, and who had nothing outstanding in my files. You see, I make a
final typescript of the english and spanish text, and until that is made I do
not enter a poem in the 'finished' file. And I do not tackle these poems as
soon as they return. For instance, I 'finished' your Maya 'Allá lejos' — one
of the first poems that you did — only the night before last. (Incidentally,
you gypped yourself out of 25 cents on that one by running two lines of spanish
as one of english. Restored now.) It just happened that none of your poems
(13 among hundreds) turned up. But I, too, have had no payment, and certainly
if merit had anything to do with it, I should have had.

I am undecided about one thing, and should like your advice. I don't know
whether to indicate which translator did which poem. Of course, the names of
the translators will be given either in the appendix or in the preface, and my
original intention was to print the initials of each man at the end of his
poem — RH, MLM, AF, DF, and so on. Now I don't know. Would it be better to
leave the versions unsigned?

But the chief thing is your consent to keep your poems. I can assure
you that none of them is being paid for at 'revision' rates; that broken lines,
repetitions, and so on, are not being paid for; that there is nothing in the
context of the book (I hope) that would make you regret your poems' presence;
that at the moment I owe you $80.50; and that I do not want this book to go out
without you.

Forgive this horrible letter. I've just dashed it off, and need hardly
point out that it has neither style nor form. But I hope it makes sense.

¡Salud!

DF