MELINDA CAMBER PORTER
81
MCP:
Going back then, do you write many letters?
OP:
Yes, I write letters but not very interesting ones. When I was
younger, I used to write many more letters.
MCP:
Were you aware of them as a literary form?
OP:
Yes, in the past. But now, no. And journals, well, I had
many. But I have destroyed them. I don't want them. Again, life
is one thing. And literature is another. No, I don't keep my jour–
nals. I think literature, poetry, is made of life and also transforms
life.
It
is not the raw material of life. Confessional poetry doesn't
work.
MCP:
Poetry is not a confession. What springs to mind is that in the
confessional one is admitting to one's weaknesses . There is some
sense of judgment that's involved. I wonder what makes confes–
sional writing? Is it because one is not in a sense talking to a loved
person but perhaps to one's moralistic eye?
OP:
We are talking in English, and English is not my language. It's
rather strange because when you speak another language, a for–
eign language, you are not the same .
It
changes personality.
MCP:
How would you say your English personality differs?
OP:
I think I am better in English. More moderate. In Spanish, my
own language, I am perhaps overconfident. In English I listen .
And it also allows me to hesitate. I can see myself swimming in
the language .
MCP:
So if! were to speak to you in Spanish, you would make more
definite or more impassioned statements?
OP:
I don't really know . It would be different . Because the lan–
guages are different. You are working in a system that is not very
well known to you, but you have remained there and you walk on
and then you turn the corner and you find that instead of the build–
ing that you were expecting to see, you find another word to say.
MCP:
When you see translations of your poetry, how do you feel?
OP:
Sometimes I am pleased. Sometimes I am surprised, because
they have expressed my poem in a different and perhaps better
way. That's why it's better for a poet to translate a poet.
MCP:
Do you have any magical devices to help you start writing?
For instance, Ingmar Bergman won't go on the set unless he is
wearing different colored socks.
OP:
Yes. For me, poetry has to do with simplicity. And you can
write it at any hour. During the night, in the morning. Sometimes
you cannot write, but you hold on to the words, and the first morn–
ing you are free, you take a piece of paper and make notes . Poetry
