¨Los cuerpos son definiciones perdidas…¨
Los cuerpos son definiciones perdidas
en los diccionarios
Sin brazos
sin piernas
sin ojos
sin memoria
tratan de recobrar su rumbo
Los cuerpos que transitan este paraíso
han perdido su significado
como una tilde dibujada en el vacío
Somos esas piedras
que lavadas por la creciente
han perdido su piel
My Translation:
Our bodies are lost definitions
in dictionaries
No arms
no legs
no eyes
no memory
trying to recover their path
Our bodies that move through this paradise
have lost their meaning
like an accent drawn in the abyss
We are those stones
washed by the tide
that have lost their skin
This poem speaks to me in a way that transcends words. My own attachment to words and metaphor coalesce with this fascinating image drawn out by Félix. Everything that we are and the language we use over time loses its meaning. There is a sense of inevitable decay, a divorce from the tongues that gave words their meaning. I like how this concept of words losing their meaning, and our own bodies becoming words without meaning, formless anomalies — it is such a powerful visual. I hope I did it some justice.
Translating poetry is unique in that you have to take the music of the words into account, as well as the meaning and metaphor. Translating music takes this to another level. But I like the challenge. Translating a full book would be even harder because you have to live inside those pages and words well enough to capture what the author wanted to convey through a different linguistic lens.
I’ll be continuing with this project and translating the full book of poetry, The Discourse of the Rain, during this week. As always, I’m happy to hear any feedback, especially from my bilingual writers/poets.
Diario de una Aventurera 