Esta será mi venganza (Ernesto Cardenal)

Esta será mi venganza:
Que un día llegue a tus manos el libro de un poeta
famoso
y leas estas líneas que el autor escribió para ti
y tú no lo sepas.

(Ernesto Cardenal)

This Will Be My Avengement

This will be my avengement:
that some day falls into your hands
the book of a famous poet

and that you read these verses
that he penned just for you
and that you never know it.

(tr. E. A. Costa 26 December 2013)

Pablo Neruda, Religión en el Este....

Allí en Rangoon comprendí que los dioses
eran tan enemigos como Dios
del pobre ser humano.
Dioses
de alabastro tendidos
como ballenas blancas,
dioses dorados como las espigas,
dioses serpientes enroscados
al crimen de nacer,
budhas desnudos y elegantes
sonriendo en el coktail
de la vacía eternidad
como Cristo en su cruz horrible,
todos dispuestos a todo,
a imponernos su cielo,
todos con llagas o pistola
para comprar piedad o quemarnos la sangre,
dioses feroces del hombre
para esconder la cobardía,
y allí todo era así,
toda la tierra olía a cielo,
a mercadería celeste.

(Pablo Neruda)

Religion in the East

Over there in Rangoon it dawned on me

that gods and goddesses were enemies

of wretched humankind just as was God--

plastered godlings in alabaster

like white whales

godlings golden like spikes of wheat

snake gods coiled around the crime of being born

buddhas nude and elegant smiling into the highball

of empty eternity

like Christ on his despicable cross

all of them—every single one—to impose on us

their paradise

with afflictions or pistol

in order to buy piety or set our blood aflame.

The fierce godlings of mankind

hiding his cowardice....

And over there in Rangoon

it was all like that--

the whole earth stinking high to the sky

with the stench of heavenly merchandise.

[tr. E. A. Costa 22 December 2013]

Purlieu

Her skin is eyes.

Her fragrance is the sense of smell.

What she lacks is the root of all counting.

Sea dresses in darkness and moonlight.

Sea strips bare to pubic blue.

Sea is eclipsed and uneclipsed.

Sea caresses and is caressed.

Sea caresses herself in earthshine.

Have you ever lost the key

and locked yourself out of sea?

[ E. A. Costa  13 December 2013]

El Pez Pescador (La gran desviación)

El pez pescador es bastante raro,

con aleta como caña de pescar

y para otros peces sobre boca

el que se parece a gusano.

Imagínase, si puedes, un pez

y pescador a una vez

y con su gusano muy gusanoso.

(E. A. Costa 8 Diciembre 2013)

The Fisherman Fish

The fisherman fish is odd enough

with a fin like a fishing rod

and for other fish above its maw

what looks to the world like a worm.

Imagine if you can a fish

and fisherman one and the same

and with his own very wormy worm.

(tr. EAC)

Eternidad (Vicente Huidobro)

Palabras puntiagudas en el azul del viento
Y el enjambre que brilla y que no canta

                      LA NOCHE EN TU GARGANTA

Acaso Dios se muere
                                                    entre almohadones blancos

Bajo el agua gastada de sus párpados
El aire triangular
                                                    para colgar estrellas
Y sobre la verdura nativa de aquel mar
Ir buscando tus huellas
                                                    sin mirar hacia atrás

Vicente Huidobro

Eternity

Sharp-pointed words in the blue of wind

and the swarming which shines bright and sings

not a note

      THE VERY NIGHT IN YOUR THROAT

Perhaps God dies among large white pillows

Below the worn water of his eyelids

The triangular air for hanging stars upon

and over the inborn verdure of that faraway sea

to go looking for your footsteps

without looking back...

(tr. E. A. Costa 2 December, 2013 Granada)