DEDICATION (Gustavo Perez Firmat)
The fact that I
am writing to you
in English
already falsifies what I
wanted to tell you.
My subject:
how to explain to you
that I don’t belong to English
though I belong nowhere else,
if not here
in English.
Migration is not only a matter of changing places, but – in many circumstances – also changing languages. People who move from country A to country B sometimes have to adapt the language of country B as well. Famous writers such as Vladimir Nabokov, Samuel Beckett, Ilija Trojanow and Arthur Koestler wrote and have written in more than one language.
Gustavo Perez Firmat is an example of a bilingual writer. Born in Havana in 1949, he left his native Cuba shortly after Fidel Castro came to power in 1959. He received a B.A. and an M.A. from the University of Miami and a Ph.D. from the University of Michigan. Currently he is a professor of Spanish at Columbia University. As both a poet and critic, Perez Firmat has made translingualism (writing in more than one language) a central theme. His memoirs and poetry books are written in Spanish as well as in English. The poem ‘Dedication’ comes from his 1995 collection, Bilingual Blues (Poems 1981-1994). In this short poem he describes his rather special situation and presents it as an impossible necessity. ‘My subject:/ how to explain to you that I / don’t belong to English / though I belong nowhere else.’
Gustavo Perez Firmat is an example of a bilingual writer. Born in Havana in 1949, he left his native Cuba shortly after Fidel Castro came to power in 1959. He received a B.A. and an M.A. from the University of Miami and a Ph.D. from the University of Michigan. Currently he is a professor of Spanish at Columbia University. As both a poet and critic, Perez Firmat has made translingualism (writing in more than one language) a central theme. His memoirs and poetry books are written in Spanish as well as in English. The poem ‘Dedication’ comes from his 1995 collection, Bilingual Blues (Poems 1981-1994). In this short poem he describes his rather special situation and presents it as an impossible necessity. ‘My subject:/ how to explain to you that I / don’t belong to English / though I belong nowhere else.’