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<div id="gmail-topHeading-medium" class="gmail-skrollable gmail-skrollable-after" style="opacity:0"><h1 class="gmail-topHeading">The South American Poet Embracing a Language of Maybes</h1></div><div id="gmail-topByline-medium" class="gmail-skrollable gmail-skrollable-after" style="opacity:0"><p class="gmail-topByline gmail-byline"><span class="gmail-author">By <a href="https://www.ozy.com/ozy-tribe/nick-fouriezos/65652" rel="author" class="gmail-inherit-fc">Nick Fouriezos</a><time datetime="2018-06-28"><span> • JUN 28 2018</span></time></span></p></div><div id="gmail-topHeading-large" class="gmail-skrollable gmail-skrollable-after" style="opacity:0"></div><div id="gmail-topByline-large" class="gmail-skrollable gmail-skrollable-after" style="opacity:0"></div><div class="gmail-author-section" style=""><div class="gmail-share-block"><ul><li class="gmail-share-item"><span class="gmail-inherit-fc"><span class="gmail-break">12</span> shares</span></li><li><a title="Share to Facebook"><i class="gmail-ozy-icon gmail-i-story-share-facebook-new-off gmail-i-story-share-facebook-new-off-dims"></i><i class="gmail-ozy-icon gmail-i-story-share-facebook-new-on gmail-i-story-share-facebook-new-on-dims"></i><span class="gmail-assistive-text">Facebook</span></a></li><li><a title="Share on Twitter"><i class="gmail-ozy-icon gmail-i-story-share-twitter-new-off gmail-i-story-share-twitter-new-off-dims"></i><i class="gmail-ozy-icon gmail-i-story-share-twitter-new-on gmail-i-story-share-twitter-new-on-dims"></i><span class="gmail-assistive-text">Twitter</span></a></li><li><a href="mailto:?subject=The South American Poet Embracing a Language of Maybes&body=Susy Delgado has helped reclaim Guarani, the best preserved native language of the Americas once considered dirty.%20https://www.ozy.com/rising-stars/the-south-american-poet-embracing-a-language-of-maybes/86779%0A%0ADon%27t forget to Sign up for OZY emails (http://www.ozy.com/emailsignup) or Like OZY on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/Ozy)." title="Email article"><i class="gmail-ozy-icon gmail-i-story-share-email-new-off gmail-i-story-share-email-new-off-dims"></i><i class="gmail-ozy-icon gmail-i-story-share-email-new-on gmail-i-story-share-email-new-on-dims"></i><span class="gmail-assistive-text">Email article</span></a></li><li class="gmail-tooltip"><span><i class="gmail-ozy-icon gmail-i-story-share-link-new-off gmail-i-story-share-link-new-off-dims"></i><i class="gmail-ozy-icon gmail-i-story-share-link-new-on gmail-i-story-share-link-new-on-dims"></i><span class="gmail-assistive-text">Copy link</span><div class="gmail-sleeve"><div style="display:none"><p></p><input id="gmail-articleID" value="https://www.ozy.com/rising-stars/the-south-american-poet-embracing-a-language-of-maybes/86779" type="text"></div></div></span></li></ul></div></div><div class="gmail-top gmail-top-atw gmail-loaded"><div class="gmail-top-sleeve gmail-container"><div class="gmail-meta-desktop gmail-container gmail-full-width"><div class="gmail-sleeve gmail-loaded"><div class="gmail-headings-wrapper gmail-c2-bc"><div class="gmail-why-care"><h2 class="gmail-c2-fc">Why you should care</h2><p>Because Susy Delgado isn’t just writing great poetry but also preserving an ancient language in the process.</p></div></div><div class="gmail-world-map gmail-map-data-loaded gmail-one-column"><div class="gmail-country-info"><div class="gmail-country-flag"><img src="https://www.ozy.com/magazine/graphics/atw/flags/PY.png" alt="PY flag"></div><div class="gmail-country-name"><a href="https://www.ozy.com/topic/paraguay">Paraguay</a></div><div class="gmail-country-geo">-23.442503° S, -58.443832° W</div></div><div class="gmail-map-outer-wrapper" style="max-height:790px"><div class="gmail-map-container"><div class="gmail-map-wrapper"><div class="gmail-map-inner-wrapper"><a class="gmail-view-map" href="https://www.ozy.com/around-the-world"><span class="gmail-ozy-icon gmail-i-view-map-icon gmail-i-view-map-icon-dims"></span><span class="gmail-text"> view map</span></a><div id="gmail-simplemaps-map-atw-countries" class="gmail-simplemaps-map-atw-countries"><div id="gmail-simplemaps-map-atw-countries_holder" style="width:429px"><div id="gmail-simplemaps-map-atw-countries_zoom" style="top: 40px; 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<p>Susy Delgado’s voice rises in soft staccato bursts, fluttering then
falling, rolling quietly through question mark inflections in
conversation with herself. The push and pull fits a poem combining
Spanish and Guarani, the indigenous language of the rural and native <a href="https://www.ozy.com/flashback/the-modern-eras-most-destructive-war-took-place-in-paraguay/76683" target="_blank">Paraguayan</a> people. She reads the first lines of her bilingual tome — <em>Yvytu yma</em>, or <em>Viento viejo</em>,
translated “old wind” — which won the country’s national literature
prize last year. Her words breeze through her own storied career, one
that has taken the 68-year-old from the then-rural farmlands of nearby
San Lorenzo to the concert halls of Buenos Aires and Madrid and London
as a professional dancer, and finally ending up here, where she serves
as an adviser to the minister of culture in the sweltering Paraguayan
capital of Asunción.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Critics
heaped praise on Delgado’s collection, released on the three-decade
anniversary of her first published works. “The words of the poetic voice
depart and return, they come and go … and bring lived moments to the
places inhabited by them,” writes Lilibeth Zambrano, an expert in
Paraguayan literature at the University of Los Andes in Venezuela who
describes Delgado’s work as “the poetics of the silent.” The impact goes
far beyond mere aesthetic, though. It’s tempting to dismiss <em>Yvytu yma</em>
as a reflection on past innovations rather than innovative itself, the
way authors often become myopic with age while leaving their best work
to the past. Yet the collection<em></em> remains transformative because
it exemplifies the cultural reclamation and renewal of Guarani, a
language spoken by 12 million people from Paraguay to Brazil, Bolivia
and Argentina. “She is one of the jewels for the Guarani language,” says
Paraguayan author Javier Viveros. </p><div class="gmail-inline_image gmail-image_size_med gmail-inline-element" id="gmail-124714"><a class="gmail-hash-link" id="gmail-img124714"> </a><div class="gmail-picture"><img alt="img 8919" src="https://pictures.ozy.com/pictures/768xany/7/1/4/124714_IMG_8919.jpg"></div><div class="gmail-sharing-options"><div class="gmail-close-button"><span class="gmail-ozy-icon gmail-i-share-icon gmail-i-share-icon-dims"> </span></div><div class="gmail-share-item" title="The South American Poet Embracing a Language of Maybes"><a class="gmail-facebook-share"><span class="gmail-ozy-icon gmail-i-share-hover-facebook-off gmail-i-share-hover-facebook-off-dims gmail-icon-off"> </span><span class="gmail-ozy-icon gmail-i-share-hover-facebook-on gmail-i-share-hover-facebook-on-dims gmail-icon-on"> </span></a><a class="gmail-twitter-share"><span class="gmail-ozy-icon gmail-i-share-hover-twitter-off gmail-i-share-hover-twitter-off-dims gmail-icon-off"> </span><span class="gmail-ozy-icon gmail-i-share-hover-twitter-on gmail-i-share-hover-twitter-on-dims gmail-icon-on"> </span></a><a class="gmail-pinterest-share"><span class="gmail-ozy-icon gmail-i-share-hover-pinterest-off gmail-i-share-hover-pinterest-off-dims gmail-icon-off"> </span><span class="gmail-ozy-icon gmail-i-share-hover-pinterest-on gmail-i-share-hover-pinterest-on-dims gmail-icon-on"> </span></a><a class="email-share" href="mailto:?subject=The South American Poet Embracing a Language of Maybes&body=Susy Delgado has helped reclaim Guarani, the best preserved native language of the Americas once considered dirty.%20https://www.ozy.com/rising-stars/the-south-american-poet-embracing-a-language-of-maybes/86779#img124714%0A%0ADon't forget to Sign up for OZY emails (http://www.ozy.com/emailsignup) or Like OZY on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/Ozy)."><span class="gmail-ozy-icon gmail-i-share-hover-email-off gmail-i-share-hover-email-off-dims gmail-icon-off"> </span><span class="gmail-ozy-icon gmail-i-share-hover-email-on gmail-i-share-hover-email-on-dims gmail-icon-on"> </span></a></div></div><div class="gmail-meta gmail-no-icons"><div class="gmail-caption"><div class="gmail-sleeve"><p class="gmail-inline_caption">Susy Delgado</p><p class="gmail-inline_source"><cite>Source:<a href="http://www.ozy.com/ozy-tribe/nick-fouriezos/65652">Nick Fouriezos</a>/OZY</cite></p></div></div></div></div><p>Her story is one of revival. Although one of the greatest Paraguayan <a href="https://www.ozy.com/good-sht/five-fierce-women-poets-to-inspire-the-resistance/76581" target="_blank">poets</a>,
Emiliano R. Fernandez, wrote in Guarani, it was treated like a
lower-caste tongue under the dictatorship of Alfredo Stroessner from
1954 to 1989. Teachers shamed schoolchildren for using it, while
political leaders disavowed it except to court the indigenous vote. At
least four-fifths of Paraguayans still understand it, making it the most
enduring native language in the Americas. But Guarani texts (typically
religious) were scarce, later written into lullabies or songs. Delgado
was essentially alone when she began writing Guarani literature in the
’80s. “The people always considered it a meaner literature,” she says.
That a book of Guarani poetry could be awarded the <em>Premio Nacional de Literatura</em>
speaks to the success of the preservation process Delgado started so
long ago. “It’s fundamental. It’s vital. Not just because it is my
mother tongue, but it is one of the more vigorous, alive, strong
languages,” she says. </p><p>Guarani has become more acceptable in
recent years, with the help of writers like Delgado. While the
Paraguayan constitution in 1992 aimed to put it on <a href="https://www.ozy.com/fast-forward/why-these-mexican-writers-are-ditching-spanish-for-indigenous-languages/75743" target="_blank">equal footing with Spanish</a>,
it wasn’t until the formation of the Ministry of Language Policy in
2011 that the government encouraged a renaissance. Now Guarani pops up
in advertising, baby names and music lyrics. And other writers are
writing in the language that, while perhaps high-pitched and harsh
verbally, conveys strange and deep truths. “I can explain many things in
less words. It’s really concentrated,” says Viveros, who made his name
writing Spanish stories but switched to Guarani for a haiku collection.
Guarani is preoccupied with maybes, uncertainty, where the word for <em>tomorrow</em> is not translated as “when the sun rises,” but rather, “<em>if </em>
the sun rises.” And it puts a name to many peculiars. For example,
Guarani has a word for the oldest, the middle and the youngest child. It
is “a tongue of nuances,” Delgado says. </p><div class="gmail-pagebreak"> </div><div class="gmail-ozy-advert-wrapper"><div id="gmail-sas_86779_1"><a href="https://www5.smartadserver.com/click?imgid=21908333&insid=7971025&pgid=535489&ckid=3355380813013927176&uci=377839701680431536&pubid=8&tmstp=3594525158&tgt=%24dt%3d1t%3b%24dma%3d504%3bsubscribed%3dnull%3bignored%3dnull%3bfblike%3dnull%3btopic%3drising_stars%3btopic%3dsouth_america%3btopic%3dlanguage%3btopic%3dapple_news%3btopic%3dwriters%3btopic%3dpoetry%3btopic%3dnative_americans%3btopic%3datw_countries%3btopic%3dparaguay%3btagid%3dsas_86779_1%3barticleid%3d86779%3bkuid%3dsu49m7oha%3bslotpos%3d1%3bslotposseq%3d1%3barticlepos%3d1%3b%24gps%3d1t%3b%24hc&systgt=%24qc%3d1309588102%3b%24ql%3dMedium%3b%24qpc%3d08035%3b%24qpp%3d%3b%24qt%3d152_471_24600t%3b%24dma%3d504%3b%24b%3d12600%3b%24o%3d11100%3b%24sw%3d1280%3b%24sh%3d768&pgDomain=https%3a%2f%2fwww.ozy.com%2frising-stars%2fthe-south-american-poet-embracing-a-language-of-maybes%2f86779&go=https%3a%2f%2fad.doubleclick.net%2fddm%2ftrackclk%2fN46101.1913692OZYMEDIA%2fB20560702.216060682%3bdc_trk_aid%3d418980470%3bdc_trk_cid%3d101251751%3bdc_lat%3d%3bdc_rdid%3d%3btag_for_child_directed_treatment%3d%3btfua%3d" target="_blank"><img id="gmail-21908333" src="https://pictures.ozy.com/Pictures/web/d/s/m/ozy_volvo_banner_hook_2000x500_r2.jpg" alt="" width="2000" height="500" border="0"></a>
</div></div><p>Delgado accidentally discovered her own proclivity for
Guarani. Although she grew up speaking it on her grandparents’ farm, she
and her peers always wrote in Spanish. Delgado pursued a dancing career
through her early twenties, training with a master in Buenos Aires from
1971 to 1976, then heading overseas and ending up in Madrid to study
sociology from 1978 to 1980. She returned to Paraguay, where she worked
as a newspaper journalist but earned international acclaim in 1985 after
finishing as a finalist for a Madrid-based Spanish poetry competition.
An advertising agency in Asunción asked her to create a script for a
radio ad in Guarani. “It was that day I discovered I could write in
Guarani,” she says, which was shocking because “everybody said it was
very hard to write!” </p><p>Like the metaphors in her poetry, in which
she compares the fleeting and elusive nature of time with the wind, her
memory of this period in her life is unreliable. “It happened so long
ago, it’s like a dream,” she admits. But she does remember that she was
reticent to publish at first. Her friends in the literary community had
to convince her, which led to the creation of <em>Algún Extraviado Temblor </em> (<em>Some Lost Tremor</em>), published in 1986, and follow-up bilingual works including <em>Tesarái Mboyve</em> (<em>Before the Forgetfulness</em>) and <em>Tataypípe</em> (<em>With the Fire</em>).</p><p>Even
amid her accolades, her work remains controversial. Critics here, as
they do globally, grapple over whether authors should preserve language
or adopt more colloquial terms. Delgado doesn’t merely write in Spanish
and Guarani, but mixes in the local slang that combines the two,
nicknamed “Jopara.” Her decision isn’t always applauded. “The high
teachers and important writers of the Guarani language used to demonize
the Jopara,” she says. “But this is really the way people talk here.” In
this moment, she speaks forcefully in Spanish — leaving the ambiguity
of Guarani behind. </p><div class="gmail-inline_image gmail-image_size_med gmail-inline-element" id="gmail-125041"><a class="gmail-hash-link" id="gmail-img125041"> </a><div class="gmail-picture"><img alt="screen shot 2018 05 18 at 11.29.34 am" src="https://pictures.ozy.com/pictures/768xany/0/4/1/125041_Screen-Shot-2018-05-18-at-11.29.34-AM.png"></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>
<br clear="all"><br>-- <br><div class="gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature">=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+<br><br> Harold F. Schiffman<br><br>Professor Emeritus of <br> Dravidian Linguistics and Culture <br>Dept. of South Asia Studies <br>University of Pennsylvania<br>Philadelphia, PA 19104-6305<br><br>Phone: (215) 898-7475<br>Fax: (215) 573-2138 <br><br>Email: <a href="mailto:haroldfs@gmail.com" target="_blank">haroldfs@gmail.com</a><br><a href="http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/" target="_blank">http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/</a> <br><br>-------------------------------------------------</div>
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