Allen Ginsberg's Howl in Spanish: A Review

Diego Luna reads Howl en espanol!

The moon is full on a cold New York night. Nights such as these are well remembered walking through Greenwich Village remembering Jack Kerouac and the Beat Generation. But on a full moon thoughts would invariably sway to Allen Ginsberg and his seminal classic — Howl.

But this isn't New York City. This is Guadalajara, Mexico and the hall at the Expo Center is teeming with 500 young women who have waited in line for hours to hear Allen Ginsberg's Howl in espanol.

The Fair

It's all somewhat overwhelming
The mass of people jostling
for the same space as everyone else.

The smell of the schoolgirls
Who view this as a day out.
The smell of the boys
Who view this as a day off.

Signs of the Times

Air is getting cool and cooler,
   Frost is coming in the night,
Hickory nuts and walnuts falling,
   Possum keeping out of sight.
Turkey strutting in the barnyard,
   Nary a step as proud as his;
Keep on strutting Mr. Turkey
   You do know what time it is.

La Adelita

¡ Viva la revolución ! ¡ Viva las adelitas !

En lo alto de la abrupta serranía
acampado se encontraba un regimiento
y una moza que valiente los seguía
locamente enamorada del sargento.

Popular entre la tropa era Adelita
la mujer que el sargento idolatraba
que ademas de ser valiente era bonita
que hasta el mismo Coronel la respetaba.

Diego Luna y Jaime López aullarán a Ginsberg en la FIL

Allen Ginsberg's Howl to be read in Spanish at Guadalajara Book Festival.

El actor y el músico mexicanos protagonizarán una lectura dramatizada de Aullido, el poema más emblemático de la Generación Beat, bajo la dirección de Sergio Zurita, el 29 de noviembre durante la FIL Guadalajara

“Vi las mejores mentes de mi generación destruidas por la locura…”. Cuando Aullido se publicó por primera vez, en 1956, Allen Ginsberg tenía “la curiosidad de legar a las siguientes generaciones una bomba de tiempo emocional que seguiría explotando en la conciencia americana”. El próximo 29 de noviembre, en el marco de la Feria Internacional del Libro de Guadalajara, el emblemático poema del escritor estadounidense estallará una vez más con la lectura dramatizada que, dirigida por Sergio Zurita, reunirá en el escenario al actor Diego Luna y al músico Jaime López.

Ode to a Twinkie

Ode to a Twinkie. A Mexican Twinkie. A Submarino.

The rumors of your corporate death are premature
As a child's memory recalls a Twinkie on a skewer

Roasting on an open fire, turning golden brown
Forty years on, that Twinkie can still be found

November Cotton Flower

Boll-weevil’s coming, and the winter’s cold,
Made cotton-stalks look rusty, seasons old,
And cotton, scarce as any southern snow,
Was vanishing; the branch, so pinched and slow,
Failed in its function as the autumn rake;