Castellanos English: Kinsey Report Rosario

Men have a different rhythm, another goal. They are the driver, the train, the distance, the wind. They stop the watch and start it." Why does the Kinsey Report Rosario Castellanos English text matter so much today? Because Castellanos does something revolutionary: she reads a scientific document as a work of tragedy.

In the final lines of the English translation, Castellanos looks away from the report and toward the sleeping man. She writes: "He doesn't know that she doesn't sleep. / He doesn't know that she knows. / And the night goes on, longer than any statistic." kinsey report rosario castellanos english

Another notable translation appears in Selected Poems of Rosario Castellanos (Latin American Literary Review Press), translated by Cecilia Rossi. Bogin’s version, however, remains the gold standard for its balance of lyrical beauty and brutal honesty. Men have a different rhythm, another goal

In the original Spanish, Castellanos uses dry, report-like language ( "Según el informe Kinsey..." ) to lull the reader into a false sense of objectivity. Then, she strikes. The poem shifts from the third person (the report) to the first person (the woman). / He doesn't know that she knows

Here is an excerpt of what the English translation of "The Kinsey Report" looks like. Note how Castellanos takes a clinical fact—the disparity in orgasm rates—and turns it into an indictment of emotional neglect. From Magda Bogin’s translation: "According to the Kinsey Report a third of American women have never had an orgasm. The other two thirds pretend.