from The Chilean Flag

La bandera de Chile narrates the vicissitudes of the Chilean flag during the Pinochet dictatorship (1973–1990) with strong overtones that evoke the sufferings of victims of political violence. The Chilean flag is a protagonist divested of agency, a national emblem subjected to the whims of political exigency, a body tortured by those who profess their allegiance to her. In my translation I have chosen to render the Chilean flag as both a female and gender-neutral subject by using the pronouns “she” and “it” because in my conversations with the poet she told me that she had dreamed that the flag had two different faces.

Written in 1981, the book became a symbol of resistance during the dictatorship and was passed around in mimeographed copies until it was formally published in 1991. Poets at the time had to read and write in secret, self-publishing works in order to avoid the censors and secret police. María Teresa Adriasola wrote under the pen name Elvira Hernández, upon the insistence of a friend, to avoid being detained for the nature of her poetry. Her work has recently received renewed attention, being awarded the Pablo Neruda Ibero-American Poetry Prize and the Jorge Tellier National Poetry Prize, both in 2018.

The primary challenge in rendering the translation consisted of identifying the two sides of the Chilean flag and assigning pronouns based on her/its two faces, a task that was carried out with revisions suggested by the poet. Additional concerns in the translation arose from the use of neologisms such as enlutece (luto = grief) and disfarsa (to un-farse, or not take part in the farse), and specific dialect imitation (sotros edálla pacá), which can be found in this selection. Also notable here are some of the particularly Chilean references such as the Estadio Nacional, where victims of the military regime were detained; General O’Higgins, the liberator of Chilean independence; and Avenida General Bulnes, where the flag is hung in the air in two great sheets, sewn together with a hole in the middle for air to pass through, creating the slit/coochie/eye referred to in the poem. Despite the uniquely Chilean context of the work, this poem contains an urgent message for readers today as rising nationalist movements mobilize patriotic discourse in order to silence dissenting voices.