El Gaucho Martín Fierro

Martín Fierro , Mosaico. Mendoza, Argentina, 2014

This is a must-read for anyone looking to learn about and understand something of Argentina, its people and history.

Martín Fierro is an epic poem that follows the trial and tribulations of said gaucho as he deals with life’s (and death’s) circumstances throughout the wide open spaces of late 19th century Argentina. You’ll find some of the same themes that still today form part of the social fabric–certainly things like corruption, incompetent governance and the arbitrary use of power, violence, civilization vs. barbarism…but also the yearning for freedom and peace, family, friendship, and our relationship with the natural world.

Even if your Spanish is pretty good this is a challenging read as it was written by José Hernández in the voice of the late 19th century gaucho, with all the unusual vocabulary and pronunciations this implies. (To give you an idea: Imagine taking a time machine back to 1870 and what it might be like to talk to a far west Texas cowboy.)

EXAMPLE (the very first stanza):

Aquí me pongo a cantar, (Here I come to sing)

al compás de la vigüela (to the beat of my guitar)

que al hombre que lo desvela (because a man who is kept from sleep by…)

una pena estrordinaria, (…an uncommon sorrow)

como la ave solitaria (like a solitary bird)

con el cantar se consuela. (comforts himself with singing)

THIS LINK will take you to a fairly well done English translation of the poem by Kate Kavanagh (her translation above), along with helpful notes of explanation. And HERE you’ll find a well-organized and annotated translation for sale by Amazon.com (Carrino, Carlos, Berni, Ward, Astiz, eds.).