Intermitent Trills: generativy of readings in Lorenzo Aillapán's Üñümche and Related Scientific-Artistic Works

Abstract

On the background of the mapuche ixofillmogen and intangible cultural heritage frames of reference, this article investigates the omission of the refrains in the Spanish version of the poems of Üñümche (2007), whose author is the bird-man and Lafkenche poet Lorenzo Aillapán. Such an omission is linked to the notion of intermittency and interpreted as deactivation-activation of a part of the poetic discourse depending on the audience (either belonging to mapuche culture and mastering the language or not). We discuss this situation of double discursivity in the light of Amerindian perspectivism (Viveiros de Castro), cosmopolitics (Verran) and the theory of translation (or non-translation) in postcolonial and indigenous contexts (Stocco, Allen). By translating some of the refrains thanks to conversation with the Pikunche artist and translator Víctor Cifuentes, we observe a burlesque and vindictive vein determining a certain hiatus between cultures and senses of humor, as well as an ominous and painful vein that invites to share the most intimate pain between subjects, achieving a confluence of experiences beyond cultures. Likewise, we associate two books inspired in Aillapán's work and role to the analysis of this differential communication strategy, one addressed to a children's audience –Cuento de Canto (2014) by Sanhueza y Herrera– and another to an audience of ornithologists –Guida multi-Etnica degli Uccelli delle Foreste Subantartiche dell’America del Sud (2011) by Rozzi–, showing how intermittency is generatively linked to different textual reinterpretations and elaborations.