Author’s Note:
The verses in “THE POEM IS A BOT” are constructed using tweets published by the account @botdelcuerpo during the months of October to December 2018.
“THE POEM IS A BOT” forms part of my book animal ajena with illustrations by María Duque which came out in September 2022 with Cardumen, an imprint of Laguna Libros in Bogotá, Colombia. The spacing here differs slightly from the version published in the book.
Nota de la autora:
Los versos de «EL POEMA ES UN BOT» están construidos a partir de los tuits publicados en la cuenta @botdelcuerpo
durante los meses de octubre a diciembre de 2018.
«EL POEMA ES UN BOT» forma parte de mi libro animal ajena con ilustraciones de María Duque publicado en septiembre de 2022 con Cardumen, un sello de Laguna Libros en Bogotá, Colombia. El espaciado ha cambiado un poco de la versión original en el libro.
Translator’s Note:
In addition to my “traditional” translation of “THE POEM IS A BOT,” I have created a “transfluxion” which allows for dynamic digital interaction.
[Please note: it’s currently designed for laptop/desktop screens rather than phones.] Since poetry bots destabilize clear notions of authorship and personal (aka human) expression, I was interested in using the transfluxion to call agency and determinacy into question. Many of the verbs in the English versioning of the poem switch between reflexive and passive voice, and certain words flicker through a range of potential registers. Also, intermittently I preserved some of my initial misreadings, adjusting the odds of appearance so that they show up only occasionally, but never quite disappear. Additionally, the reader becomes implicated in the blurred questions of authorship. From the start, they "write" the title of the poem, their device forcing their keystrokes. And then later, they must choose options from dropdowns to complete the poem. While reading, they also have the choice to click “<*>” to switch between languages, the English and Spanish dissolving into each other. My hope is that the digital translation of the poem inhabits and extends the impulse of Dávila’s “original” Spanish version.
Author’s Bio:
Carolina Dávila Díaz is a poet and editor from Bogotá, Colombia. Her book Como las catedrales won the National Award of Poetry in Colombia in 2010. She is also the author of Imagen (In)completa (2018) and animal ajena (2022) and co-editor of “La trenza”, a poetry, essay, and illustration magazine. She is part of Contaminación Cruzada, an artistic and poetic intervention project that explores the possibilities of language in public spaces. She lives in New York, where she is pursuing a Ph.D. in Latin American Literature and Art.
Translator’s Bio:
Ryan Greene writes, translates, makes, and caretakes books in "Phoenix, Arizona," the city where he grew up. His most recent translations include projects with Elena Salamanca, Claudina Domingo, Yaxkin Melchy, and Giancarlo Huapaya. He's learning.