Wednesday, May 25, 2016

The Art Of Walking/ El arte de caminar


                     “Das Sitzfleisch ist gerade die Sünde
                      wider den heiligen Geist.”

                                                Friedrich Nietzsche

The art of walking is not needing to run.
It is falling straddled  by antigravity.
Walking is levity. Walking is yeast.
It has its own air and skies, its own eyes and ears....

E. A. Costa


El arte de caminar

                     “Sentarse firmemente es un pecado
                     contra el espíritu santo.”

                                               Friedrich Nietzsche

El arte de caminar es no necesitar correr.
Es una caída montada a horcajadas por antigravedad.
Es la ligereza. Es la levadura.
Sus propios aires y cielos, ojos y oídos tiene.


Tr. EAC 

E. A. Costa    2011 to May 16, 2016     San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua

Saturday, May 21, 2016

San Juan del Sur (May)


Through the cove the salt wind
fills the air with petals of tamarind.

E. A. Costa

San Juan del Sur (Mayo)

Por la ensenada la brisa marina
llena el aire salado con pétalos de tamarindo.

Tr. EAC

E. A. Costa   San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua   May 21, 2016

Wednesday, May 11, 2016

Jim Harrison: Where Is Jim Harrison?/ ¿Dónde está Jim Harrison?


He fell off the cliff of a seven-inch zafu.
He couldn’t get up because of his surgery.
He believes in the Resurrection mostly
because he was never taught how not to.


Jim Harrison


Dónde está Jim Harrison?

Cayó de un precipicio de un almohadón
que tuvo siete pulgadas de ancho.
No podía tenerse en pie debido a la cirugía.
En la resurrección él todavia tiene fé
porque nadie nunca le enseñó cómo no...

Tr. EAC

E. A. Costa   May 12, 2016   Granada, Nicaragua
__________________________________________________
Note: A zafu (Japanese: 座蒲) is a round cushion for sitting on the floor,
well-known in the West for its use in Zen meditation. It is to be noted that
the "mostly" in the original engineers an elegant amphiboly. Ordinarily it would
be read as "mostly because" but Harrison has put the line break after it, suggesting
it might apply also to the "resurrection". The play, in effect, also brings a cunningly
ambiguous cryptotype to the surface, that is, adjectival "most" as an adverb
 ("extremely" and in American English also "almost"), Though this is difficult
or impossible to duplicate in another language,  at most, if very craftily, it highlights 
the ambiguity inherent in the rest of the two lines. 

Tuesday, May 3, 2016

Laguna de Apoyo (May)

(dedicated to the esteemed  José Roberto Bermúdez Pérez and Gilberto Lacayo Bermúdez)

Regal eye
calm and deep
returns the changing
stares of day.
Above--on the steep sides
of the ancient crater,
sprays of flowers yellow
as brightest sulphur
set waiting water
alight in burning blue.

E. A. Costa


Laguna de Apoyo (Mayo)

(dedicado a los estimados José Roberto Bermúdez Pérez and Gilberto Lacayo Bermúdez)

El ojo real
calmo y profundo
contesta las miradas
inconstantes del día.
Encima--sobre los flancos
abruptos del cráter vetusto,
ramos de flores amarillas
como el azufre más brillante
encienden el agua lista de azul.

Tr. EAC

E. A. Costa May 3, 2016

Sunday, May 1, 2016

Dents du Bonheur


                      Gat-tothed I was, and that bicam me weel...
                                                          
                                                            Geoffrey Chaucer


In the end what is there of span
in the continuity of human teeth
save fair smile of Venus,
gapped and incisive:

12345678  87654321

whereat precessions
running left and right
delight one in the other
across an interval of air?

E. A. Costa

E. A. Costa      May 1, 2016   Granada, Nicaragua