Reading the Williams(-Amaral) Translations of Latin American Poetry: How to Appreciate the “Carlos” Personae of the Late Years

Abstract

This article focuses on the inter-American friendship turned partnership between William Carlos Williams and José Vázquez-Amaral, and provides a comparative analysis of three translations they worked on together—Álvaro Figueredo’s “Naked”; Pablo Neruda’s “Ode to Laziness”; and Silvino Ocampo’s “The Infinite Horses.” The article defines Williams’s translation poetics, with special attention given to his commitment to using the American idiom and its prosody, and demonstrates the debt owed to Vázquez-Amaral for his contribution. It further demonstrates the importance of both translation and the Spanish literary tradition to Williams.