Regina Coyula, Translator: Unstated
A reader of this blog from Portugal was at my house recently. In the
middle of the obligatory coffee she asked me why, since starting to
write about domestic topics and daily life, each time with increasing
frequency, I broached political themes and if that did not cause
problems for me.
I was not aware of the change that my Portuguese friend alerted me to,
so my answer to a topic that I had not noticed would be the same as what
I told her without thinking and after the reflection that followed her
departure.
I barely have a social life, so my topics are mostly domestic, reminding
me of a line from Carlos Varela: politics doesn't fit in the sugar bowl,
with the polysemic sense that it doesn't fit because it spills over. The
political theme jumps out at me from the TV or the radio, after a
conversation with acquaintances or strangers, or from something I
stumble across the in the newspaper. Politics has marked our lives, so
it has come to be a domestic issue, ergo, I am writing about my daily life.
October 16 2011
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