Saturday, April 09, 2005

La Australia

Que La Australia es el menos conocido país hispánico del mundo.

La primera en una serie de pruebas.

Fíjate en el nombre. La Australia lleva su nombre gracias al marino ibérico, Pedro Fernández de Quirós.

En el 21 de diciembre 1605 salió de Perú para buscar La Austrialia del Espiritu Santo. En las islas del Océano Pacífico le dijeron que estaba muy cerca un gran continente. Nunca pudo alcanzarlo pero sí llega el nombre de Australia (pues, después de cambiar un poquito la ortografía).

Hay una estatua del capitán al lado de la estación de ferrocarril principal de Sydney, Australia. Pobre, está lejos del famoso puerto y casi solo las palomas saben que existía.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Qué historia tan española... religiosidad, intuición, valor y fracaso.

Yotro said...

Exacto, Alex, aunque alguna gente opinan que Australia es el país más secular del mundo.

Anonymous said...

Eso es porque Pedro Fernández de Quirós no llegó a su destino. Si no, ahora Australia sería tan católica como Latinoamérica y probablemente igual de desastrosa. Suerte para los australianos... suerte también para los australianos originales? un español diría que no, no sé lo que diría un indígena latinoamericano.

Anonymous said...

Olvidé firmar mi comentario

George Manka said...

"Bitter indeed the chalice that he drank
For no man's pride accepts so cheap a rate
As not to call on Heaven to vindicate
His worth together with the cause he served"

Yotro said...

Alex, es verdad lo que dijiste. Dicen que Australia es el país afortunado. ¿Pero debemos dar gracias a Dios por ser un país secular?

George, a couple of years ago I went to a sparsley-attended conference at Sydney University in honour of McAuley. Geoff Lehmann (tax expert, poet, lovely fellow) was there, also a hip poet whose name I forget but who had written a novel conjuring into words the paintings of Balthus.

I like McAuley's version of the Rilke poem, the one beginning with the lines, "Heart, it is time ..."

George Manka said...

Maybe the event organizers should have advertized McCauley as 50% of Ern Malley. I think McCauley and Vincent Buckley etc have dropped out of the canon a bit in Australia.

And Geoff Lehman. I liked his "Ross's Poems" - Murray's first collection of poems was the Ilex Tree with Lehman. I knew that Lehman had issues with Murray in the 80's because he had become a veggie and didn't appreciate Murray's poems about sticking pigs, etc.

McCauley is frightfully hard to find outside of Australia. Can you tell me the Rilke poem he translated. Is it "Herr, es ist Zeit"?. I love that poem. I'll stick it on my blog.

Yotro said...

George,

Here is McAuley's rendering ---

AUTUMN

Heart, it is time. The fruitful summer yields.
The shadows fall across the figured dial,
The winds are loosed upon the harvest fields.
See that these last fruit swell upon the vine,
Grant them as yet a southern day or two
Then press them to fulfillment and pursue
The last of sweetness in the heady wine.

You shall be homeless, shall not build this year.
You shall be solitary and long alone.
Shall wake, and read, and write long letters home,
And on deserted pavements, here and there
Shall wander restless, as the leaves are blown.