Third Poetry Portfolio
Two Poems
By Olvido García Valdés
Translated from the Spanish by Catherine Hammond
hubo vida mientras hubo
hormigas, peoncillas sin eje
recorriendo la flor, las hojas,
el tallo de los cardos
venían
de lo añil y lo dulce,
de lo reposado sobre la corola,
antes jugosa y verde, la corona
de espinas.
there was life while there were
ants, tiny tops spinning without an axis
circling the flower, the leaves,
stems of thistle
they used to come
from indigo and from the sweet,
from the calm above the corolla,
before succulent and green, the crown
of thorns.
En la noche llegan
a morir las mariposas de la roja
ceniza, una tras una, cuatro,
con el ciclo lunar.
En la tela de araña,
nos debatimos,
nos perdemos en réplicas
sin hilación.
Madres sujetan sutiles
la respuesta, sordas
en su fijeza de fines.
Vienen de noche,
aletean, se deslizan
vibrando. Al fin
tiemblan con alas
semiplegadas. Cesa
en la mañana
el temblor.
In the night butterflies arrive,
ash-red, one after another, four
altogether, to die
with the lunar cycle.
We debate
within the spider’s web,
lose ourselves in retorts
without the thread of logic.
Mothers, artful,
withhold the answer, deaf
in firm purpose.
Pulsing, they come
at night, flutter
their wings, glide.
At the end with semi-folded
wings, they tremble.
The tremor ceases
by morning.
Catherine Hammond‘s translations have appeared as a center chapbook from Mid-American Review and have been published in Field, Hayden’s Ferry Review, Drunken Boat, Cerise, Metamorphoses, and Words without Borders.
Olvido García Valdés, a Spanish poet, was born in 1950. Her books include El tercer jardín, Exposición, ella, los pájaros, caza nocturna, Del ojo al hueso, and Y todos estábamos vivos, which received the Premio Nacional de Poesía 2007, her country’s most important poetry award.
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