This week our writers bring you the latest news from Tibet, El Salvador, and France. At Indiana University, a new Tibetan translation of Elie Wiesel’s Night sparks discussion; in El Salvador, the contemporary poet Vladimir Amaya gives an interview about his poetic decisions; in France, the accusations of sexual assault in the literary establishment ignite urgent discussion about French law and the #MeToo movement. Read on to find out more!
Shelly Bhoil, Editor-at-Large, reporting from United States
There was a powerful coming together of two exile stories—the Tibetan and Jewish—at the Central Eurasian Studies Department of Indiana University through a panel discussion—The Tibetan Translation of Elie Wiesel’s Night—on January 29. The Nobel Peace Prize-winner Elie Wiesel’s memoir Night (1960), discussed by the distinguished Jewish literature scholar Alvin Rosenfeld in the panel, has been translated into more than thirty languages, its Tibetan version being the most recent. Wiesel was a Holocaust survivor upon whom the Dalai Lama conferred the International Campaign for Tibet’s Light of Truth award in 2005.
Wiesel’s Night is the first work to be translated into Tibetan under New York-based Latse Library’s 108 translations project and made available for free here. According to Latse’s statistics, “In the first two weeks alone [since the book’s publication in Oct 2019], there were 3,300 downloads of the ebook and PDF, and countless more instances of sharing and forwarding on social media and email.” Gendun Rabsel, the Tibetan language expert, spoke in the panel about the welcoming reception of Night among Tibetan readers. Pema Bhum, Night’s translator and a leading Tibetan intellectual, discussed his meeting with Wiesel and the challenges and choices in translating this work into Tibetan, including his consultations with the celebrated historian on Tibet, Elliot Sperling, and with IU Jewish Studies faculty.
The event, coincidently two days after the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, was held on the third death anniversary of Elliot Sperling to honor his commitment to the study of Tibetan language and literary traditions. Ron Sela, a colleague of late Professor Sperling, spoke of the latter’s tireless work in Tibetology and how he, though not a practicing Jew, interpreted Judaism “with a more reflective meaning—a sense of belonging to a minority group with a shared past and a shared fate . . . and a commitment to adhere to certain important principles.” Ron Sela also revealed the continuation of Sperling’s legacy through a scholarship endowed by his daughter for the learning of the Tibetan language at Indiana University.
Nestor Gomez, Editor-at-Large, reporting from El Salvador
February 6, 2020 was the 104th anniversary of the death of Rubén Darío, a Nicaraguan poet known for ushering in the literary movement modernismo. In his adolescence, Darío spent some time in El Salvador meeting the then president, Rafael Zaldivar, and studying under Francisco Gavidia, a Salvadoran poet, fellow admirer of French verse, and member of the literary group “La Juventud.” Despite leaving El Salvador due to financial difficulties and smallpox, he maintained a strong friendship with Gavidia for many years. This month, the Nicaraguan Embassy in El Salvador held an event in the capital San Salvador in honor of Darío.
Back in January, Salvadoran poet and editor Vladimir Amaya gave an interview on the topic of literature that engages the theme of gangs. One of the questions posed to Amaya during the interview was Amaya’s reasons for writing poetry with the theme of gangs and if those reasons were based on any personal experiences. Amaya responded by saying that first and foremost he wanted to approach reality through literature. When people become engaged with literature, they are also able to access topics, themes, and issues that are based in real life. As a writer, Amaya says that he needs to write about reality because he is a human being, a part of society. Amaya’s second reason for writing literature engaging with the theme of gangs is his need to find his own voice. Someone once said to Amaya, “you cannot sing the losses of your people, if you cannot sing to yourself your own.” Amaya continued by saying that it would be a mistake to be a spokesperson for the voiceless if he could not find his own voice. So Amaya decided to begin investigating the history of his country of El Salvador, searching for answers to questions like: Who were El Salvador’s first poets? Why does a certain city like soccer so much? Is society really violent? According to Amaya, his way of presenting reality to others is through writing and literature. Amaya believes that if anyone wants to understand what’s going on then they must start with literature because literature is a type of language that holds intention, vision, and humanity.
Barbara Halla, Assistant Editor, reporting from France
Usually my dispatch for France for this period would highlight the upcoming Paris book festival which takes place in late March. But this is going to be a bit different, focusing instead briefly on the intersection between the #MeToo movement and the French literary scene. In early January, Vanessa Springora published her memoir, Le Consentement (Consent), an account of her grooming and predatory relationship at the age of fourteen with Gabriel Matzneff, who at the time was in his fifties. Matzneff is not necessarily an international household name, but he is well known and highly respected among the French literati.
The French literary establishment had largely been absent from conversations surrounding sexual assault, despite decades of dubious behaviour. In fact, one of the most disturbing aspects brought to the forefront by Springora’s book, already a bestseller, is the fact that Matzneff’s behaviour and paedophilia were well known and even encouraged by the people around him. Matzneff has published several books with Gallimard detailing his “preference” for young girls and boys, and even his travels to the Philippines where he paid to rape children.
As aptly put by Natasha Lehrer for The Guardian, Matzneff’s case is not indicative of French society’s attitudes towards sexual assault and consent, although French laws on the matter are complicated, there being no direct legal equivalent to statutory rape in French jurisprudence. But French feminists have already produced a considerable body of work on the matter and they continue to push against rape culture, with French high school students even getting in a heated debate about how to interpret and interact with problematic depictions of rape and sexual assault in the literary texts they are uncritically presented with for their national exams.
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Read more dispatches on the Asymptote blog: