Monday 23 April 2007
Every Monday I have Spanish class (I wish it were every day! But a girl has to work . . .) and at the moment, I spend a good portion of every class reading Martín Fierro, a piece of classic Argentine literature. It is an rhyming epic poem written in very old-fashioned Spanish about the rather miserable life of a gaucho, Martín. To be honest, it's over my head, and I would be completely unable to read it without my teacher by my side explaining old words, gaucho (cowboy) terms, and words that the author, José Hernández, just made up. (Imagine that Shakespeare had written a play about cowboys.)
A lot of common Argentine proverbs come from it, everyone worth their mate can quote from it, and this first verse is especially well known. So, as part of my self-imposed South American literature course, I decided to give it a go, and try this poem out. If I can make it through the first book, I'll be happy.
A lot of common Argentine proverbs come from it, everyone worth their mate can quote from it, and this first verse is especially well known. So, as part of my self-imposed South American literature course, I decided to give it a go, and try this poem out. If I can make it through the first book, I'll be happy.
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