Crepuscule with Nellie by Charles Simic.
Monk at the Five Spot
late one night.
*Ruby my Dear, Epistrophy.*
The place nearly empty
Because of the cold spell.
One beautiful black transvestite
alone up front,
Sipping his drink demurely.
The music Pythagorean,
one note at a time
Connecting the heavenly spheres,
While I leaned against the bar
surveying the premises
Through cigarette smoke.
All of a sudden, a clear sense
of a memorable occasion…
The joy of it, the delicious melancholy…
This very strange man bent over the piano
shaking his head, humming…
*Misterioso.*
Then it was all over, thank you!
Chairs being stacked on tables,
their legs up.
The prospect of the freeze outside,
the long walk home,
Making one procrastinatory.
Who said Americans don’t have history,
only endless nostalgia?
And where the hell was Nellie?
- from *Gods and Devils* 1990.
Crepuscle with Nellie por Charles Simic
Monk en el Five Spot
tarde, una noche.
* Ruby my Dear, Epistrophy .*
El lugar casi vacío
Debido a la ola de frío.
Un hermoso travesti negro
solo, sentado al frente,
Bebiendo su bebida con recato.
El pitagórico de la música,
una nota a la vez
Conectando las esferas celestes,
Mientras me apoyaba en la barra
supervisando el local
A través del humo de cigarrillo.
De repente, la clara sensación
de una ocasión memorable …
La alegría, la deliciosa melancolía …
Un hombre muy extraño inclinado sobre el piano
moviendo la cabeza, tarareando…
* Misterioso .*
Entonces se acabó todo, ¡gracias!
Sillas se hacinaban en las mesas,
sus patas hacia arriba.
La perspectiva de la helada afuera,
la larga caminata a casa,
Me hacia procrastinar.
¿Quién dijo que los estadounidenses no tienen historia,
sólo nostalgia infinita?
¿Y dónde diablos estaba Nellie?
trad. b.p.r.
monk’s advice
with the Baroness
thelonious & eric
pic b.p.r.
Rafael Cadenas, Barquisimeto, Venezuela, 1930
Names
Your name is wet leaf, lonely apartment night, vicissitude.
bell, softness and lust, innocence, smoothness of the skin,
full moon, crisis,
oh my cave, my ring of Saturn, my thousand-petalled lotus,
Euphrates and Tigris, sea urchin, garland, Janus, vessel, turtledove,
S. and clover,
oviparous,
grapes, fleece and petrification;
you could be called …
but your name is
bed, sink, toothpaste, coffee, first cigarette,
then taxi sun, acacia tree, your name is also acacia and six pee em
-em- or half past six or seven, beer and Shakespeare
and again you are called wet leaf, lonely apartment night
day after day,
yes, you have so many names
and I cannot call you,
everything absurd as the loveless morning that the bathroom mirrors
gather and protect,
all so hopelessly unapproachable,
all such a lost cause.
Rafael Cadenas,Falsas maniobras, 1966
transl. b.p.r.
Ars Poetica
May every word carry what it says.
May it be like the tremor that holds it.
May it remain like a heartbeat.
I will not utter adorned falsehood or ink dubiously or add
brightness to what is.
This makes me hear myself. But we are here to tell the truth.
Let us be real.
I want frightening accuracies.
I shudder when I think I fake myself. I must carry the weight of
my words. They own me as much as I own them.
If I do not see well, tell me, you who know me, my lie, show me
the deception, rub the fraud in me.
I will be grateful, seriously.
I madly want to reciprocate myself.
Be my eye, wait for me at night and see me, scrutinize me, shake me.
Rafael Cadenas, Intemperie, 1977
transl. b.p.r.
llevo tu corazón conmigo(lo llevo en
mi corazón)nunca estoy sin él(adonde yo
vaya tú vas, querida; y todo lo hecho
solo por mí lo haces tú, cariño)
no temo
ningún destino (pues tú eres mi destino, mi amor) no deseo
ningún mundo (pues hermosa eres mi mundo, mi verdadera)
y es que eres lo que una luna siempre ha significado
y lo que un sol siempre cantará eres tú
he aquí el más profundo secreto que nadie conoce
(he aquí la raíz de la raíz y el brote del brote
y el cielo del cielo de un árbol llamado vida;que crece
más alto que el alma puede añorar o la mente puede ocultar)
y esta es la maravilla que mantiene separadas las estrellas
llevo tu corazón(lo llevo en mi corazón)
trad. b.p.r.
loveandmixtapes:giarae:actuallyimandrea:(via serpentsbeneaththeirhoods)
