Paraguayan Sea

by Wilson Bueno

Originally written in Portunhol--a Spanish-Portuguese mix from where Brazil and Argentina border Paraguay--with Guarani, Bueno's Paraguayan Sea is a homage to life, to being embodied, to border crossing, and to language itself. Who is its Paraguayan narrator who has loved two men, old and young, in a hot/cold beach town in Brazil? A woman, as she says? A gay man switching pronouns? Paraguayan Sea is a river-to-the-sea of identities and migrations, its Portunhol translated into Frenglish by the polylingual poet Erín Moure.

Genres: Poetry, Literature, Queer

128 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1992

About the author

Wilson Bueno (Jaguapitã, 13 de março de 1949 - Curitiba, 31 de maio de 2010) foi escritor, cronista e poeta paranaense. Nasceu em Jaguapitã e ainda criança se mudou para Curitiba, onde descobriu a sua vocação literária. Ao longo de sua vida construiu duas obras: a sua literatura - reconhecida como uma das mais interessantes e importantes entre os escritores brasileiros dos últimos 40 anos, que lhe rendeu 16 livros - e o jornalismo - como editor de O Nicolau e colaborador em vários jornais conceituados do país. Faleceu no dia 30 de maio de 2010, na cidade de Curitiba, onde vivia desde a década de 1970.

Reviews

[Gui · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Isto: yo desearia alcançar todo que vibre e tine abaixo, mucho abaixo de la línea del silêncio. No hay idiomas aí. SOlo la vertigen de la linguagem. Deja-me que exista".

[Thalia Andasol · Rating 4 out of 5]

This reminded me about how much I love literature and language and it was something I picked up randomly at the library on a whim and let sit in my book pile for months. I do very much believe in the right book at the right time concept because this was totally that. I was fresh off a bunch of miserable Oresteia retellings and just wanted to remember how much language can mean and be. This as a translated piece is fascinating because of its meshing of multiple languages yet everything flows and has such an immaculate auditory sound. I would find myself reading the words aloud to myself because of how stunning it ended up sounding. I love language so much and the extra materials after the main text really assert why, like please read this it is so good and beautiful and fascinating.

[Sofía Agüero · Rating 4 out of 5]

Una novela distinta, un desafío lingüístico que busca interpelar al lector desde un lugar más marginal, más ajeno a la narrativa tradicional pero sin dejar de tener puntos de contacto con ella. En “Mar paraguayo” lo que abunda es un juego con la memoria, la memoria ancestral, colectiva, la memoria latinoamericana pero también la no memoria de esos espacios fronterizos que están en la triple frontera que lo son todo pero nada a la vez. La identidad de la protagonista “Marafa” es la clave para entender el texto, no es una historia sencilla y pese a su brevedad no se puede leer de un tirón, sin embargo la historia de fondo es simple y se cuenta desde esos no lugares que a medida que avanza la lectura, se nos van formando en la mente aunque sea vagamente.

[Paul B · Rating 5 out of 5]

An absolute triumph of prose and poetry through an explosion, a bursting of idiosyncratic language and queerness. This mixing of languages allows the narrator’s confessions to reach unique levels of intensity, intimacy and resolve, and to convey a sense of honesty and self awareness in the rawness of his emotions. Translating such blend of Spanish, Portuguese and Guaraní in a meaningful way is no small feat, and here the translator has truly outdone herself. I am already looking forward to the day when I will read it again.

[Yesenia · Rating 5 out of 5]

This slapped.

[RAT 2.o · Rating 5 out of 5]

“La ley en este novela es que la lengua no tiene ninguna ley.”

Increíble texto. Su musicalidad hizo que devoré el libro dentro de poco tiempo. Fue fascinante porque cada oración tenía una multitud de sentidos. Les recomiendo leer el ensayo de Cecily Raynor dedicado a esta novela porque echa luz sobre el uso del idioma en la creación de una identidad alternativa, la autoridad y la memoria individual.

[Julia Brito · Rating 5 out of 5]

Um livro desafiador e emocionante.

[Klissia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Poético e estético .Boa literatura. Uma pequena joia linguística.

[marina · Rating 4 out of 5]

portuñol selvaje amo

[Mika · Rating 3 out of 5]

Una forma de escritura peculiar que me llamó la atención: la mezcla de guaraní y portuñol. Muy interesante desde lo literario y tambien desde lo lingüístico.

[Maria Paniago · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sonho, sangue e América do Sul.

[T Davidovsky · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's incredible what can be done with language.

A compact, linguistically experimental text that uses hybridity as both form and theme. Written primarily a fluid blend of Portuguese and Spanish, with intrusions of Guaraní, it resists fixed linguistic boundaries much as its protagonist resists clear psychological ones. The result is a text that feels simultaneously slippery and immersive.

You'd think it would be untranslatable, but Moure (mostly) pulled it off in Frenglish. It's doing something fundamentally different from Wilson Bueno's version. I had to look up all the French words, whereas I imagine that as someone familiar with Spanish, I'd probably have an easier time with the Portuguese. The Guarani juxtaposed with French and English is also a little more awkward than it might be when juxtaposed with Portunhol. But then again, Spanish and Portuguese are colonizers tongues like any other, and the fact that they may feel natural next to Guarani is arbitrary, the result of Spanish and Portuguese colonizers who brought their language to the Guarani people, a process that is no more natural than sticking the language next to Frenglish. So if this translation isn't exactly like the original, that's okay, it still has plenty to reveal.

[Sarah Schulman]

Intense and personal.