(Studies in German Literature Linguistics and Culture) Rolf J

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WILLI BOLLE
of the rubber barons: “My money is in London, my soul is in France, and
to Brazil I offer my respectful patriotism” (FL, 73). Last but not least we
need to mention the group of the Seringueiros in Souza’s drama: they
represent the thousands of workers who actually extracted the latex and
created the wealth of Amazonia in rubber-boom times.
The best résumé of their work, as of the whole debate on the issue
of the identity of the “Paris on the Amazon” is — in accordance with
the joking and (self-)ironic spirit of Souza’s vaudeville — one of the
“voices of the city.” A text spoken by one of the cocottes offers a concise
portrait of the region. It is especially conceived for a foreign public.
In order to “divulge our progress” beyond the limits of Brazil, the
cocotte plans to travel to Paris and there give a lecture, in the famous
Salle Pleyel, so that “Europe will be able to learn more about Amazonia.”
The issue of identity is sharpened by the form and style of the
text. Its naiveté is underlined by its linguistic mixture: the inclusion of
Portuguese words in grammatically incorrect French (in this translation:
incorrect English). A transformation of the text into correct English
would destroy its peculiarity. The incorrect use of the language is
a parody of intercultural dialogue and a way to draw our attention to
educational inequity. The talk of the cocotte is an ironical comment on
the limitations of critique, but it does not refrain from focusing on the
use of natural resources, of labor and of public money by the holders of
power. To make this final quotation more complete, let us imagine — in
the spirit of vaudeville — that the scene occurs in Paris in the 1920s
and that Walter Benjamin is seated in the auditorium — he who made
of the prostitute one of the essential categories for understanding the
modern metropolis. Listening to the talk of the cocotte from Manaus,
especially when she speaks of the “axe” of the seringueiro striking the
rubber tree in the primeval forest, Benjamin might then be wondering
if this is meant to be a postcolonial interrogation of his European modernism.
Here is the text:
The Estade of Amazonas is large an estade as every gents knows.
It holds in its boje [big belly] the grand river known as Amazon
River, who holds water capable to finish all the dryness of Ceará.
Amazonas holds borrache [latex] which is the product of a tree
called bourrachier.
To extract the borrache, the cearence [from the State of Ceará]
strikes the bourrachier with the axe and then fincs [fixes] a tigelle
[bowl] in the buraque [hole]. The borrache flows and falls in the
tigelle. At afternoon the cearence comes and pours the tigelles small
in the tigelles grand and takes them to his house. When he holds a
portion of grand tigelles full, he sells it to the regaton [merchant
who navigates on the river] and passes rest of the year to play violin,
balancing in his rede [hammock].