shuttered-glowing-void – A Poetry Reading and Conversation with Rodolfo Häsler
Join us in tÿpo this thursday for an evening with Swiss-Cuban poet Rodolfo Häsler, who will read from his body of work, blending Spanish, German, and cosmopolitan influences. Emma Toukonen will present her Finnish translations, and José Luis Rico will lead a discussion on Häsler’s unique poetry and cultural roots. Don’t miss this exploration of language and tradition!
Poet and translator Rodolfo Häsler (1958) represents a peculiar case in the landscape of Spanish-
language poetry. Born in Havana, educated in German-speaking institutions in Spain and
Switzerland, Rodolfo Häsler is the author of ten poetry collections and several translations of
German classics, including Novalis and Kafka. From his first books, published in the 80’s (Poemas
de arena, Tratado de licanthropía), Häsler’s work has harnessed a wide array of literary devices
(from the quasi-objective description of landscape to Lezama Lima’s verbal delirium). At the level
of discourse, Häsler’s poetry is imbued with that Hispanic esotericism that “doesn’t denote [its
object] but rather evokes [it]” (Hugo Friedrich, Die Struktur der modernen Lyrik, 1956). On the other
hand, through its cosmopolitan drive and themes, Häsler's work amalgamates Germanic and
Romance cultural traditions, disrupting referentiality (city names, everyday visions, travel
experiences) by means of a reflexive eroticism: an erotic approach to philosophical reflection. In
this sense, his poetry simultaneously touches the limits of rootedness and rootlessness. In this talk,
Häsler will read his poems alongside Emma Toukonen’s Finnish translations. The Helsinki-based
poet José Luis Rico will discuss the constitutive elements of Häsler’s work and its relation to the
Spanish- and German-language traditions.
Participants:
Rodolfo Häsler (Santiago de Cuba, 1958) is a Swiss-Cuban poet and translator. He studied
Literature at the University of Lausanne, Switzerland. Among his books of poetry are Poemas de
arena (1982), Tratado de licantropía (1988), Elleife (1993, 2018, Aula de Poesía de Barcelona
Prize), De la belleza del puro pensamiento (1997, Oscar Cintas Foundation Fellowship), Poemas
de la rue de Zurich (2000), and Lengua de lobos (2021, XII Claudio Rodríguez International Poetry
Prize). He has translated the complete poetry of Novalis (DVD Ediciones, Barcelona, 2001) and
Kafka's short stories (Editorial Thule, Barcelona, 2006). He curated the edition of Bolivian poet
Blanca Wiethüchter’s poetry anthology, El festín de la flama (Editorial La Cabra, Mexico City,
2012).
Emma Toukonen (Hämeenlinna, 1988) is a Helsinki-based student of Finnish literature and a
translator from Spanish, a language whose study she began in Mexico in 2007. Toukonen teaches
Finnish language and literature in high school. A permanent collaborator of Sivuvalo Platform ry,
she has translated several contemporary Spanish-language writers performing in Helsinki. Her
latest translations are excerpts from award-winning scholar and writer Cristina Rivera Garza’s
novel El invencible verano de Liliana (Liliana’s Invincible Summer), which was awarded the Pulitzer
Prize in 2024. In March 2024, Finland’s Translators and Interpreters Association awarded
Toukonen a Tarja Roinila scholarship for the translation of Argentinian Marisa Martinez Pérsico’s
poetry collection Finlandia, slated for publication by Aviador Kustannus.
José Luis Rico (Ciudad Juárez, 1987) is a poet, translator and cultural manager based in Helsinki.
He studied a master's degree in comparative literature at UNAM and a creative writing M.F.A. at
NYU. He has published several books of poetry and translated classic and contemporary authors
from and between Spanish, English, French and Finnish. He currently serves as president of the
association Sivuvalo Platform ry and is dedicated to the translation of Finnish poetry, with a two-
year grant from Kone Foundation.
Praising Casal and cursing Virgilio,
he extolled the dark window’s gliding shadows.
Oh the Maya, Ariosto, the dauntless Spanish legacy.
The shuttered window is now a tokonoma of emptiness.