It’s not quite Monday, but I’ve been reading Forrest Gander’s splendid translations of Coral Bracho, a Mexican poet. The book is worth reading just for the introduction, but the poems are, well, rapturous might be the adjective I’m looking for. Here’s a short sample, in Spanish and English:
En la entraña del tiempo
El tiempo cede
y entreabre
su delicada profundidad. (puertas
que unas a otras se protegen; que unas en otras entran;
huellashuellas,
rastro de mar.) Un otoño
de leños y hojarascas. En su fondo:
La espesura translúcida del placer; sus hiedras íntimas:
Oro:
foliaciones de luz: Fuego que enraíza en el metal florecido,
y un musgo fino,
incandescente.
* * *
In Time’s Core
Time relents
and bares, ever
so slightly, its elusive depths. (Doors
safeguarding other doors; opening one into another;
huellastracks,
vestiges of ocean) An autumn
of logs and leaf piles. At its core:
The translucent thicket of pleasure; it’s intimate ivies:
Gold:
foliate light: Fire rooted to budding metal,
and a delicate moss,
incandescent.
from Firefly Under the Tongue, the Selected Poems of Coral Bracho, translated by Forrest Gander, a book worth owning!