Poetry in Translation Issue
Volume 16:3, Summer 2015
Drop by Drop
Land clouded by steps.
Inertia of my walk,
safety of footprints I do not see.
I do not look back, do not turn my head,
I only feel the fine fabric of water and air
on my face,
it is there where I let myself fall
where the wind feels beaten
by my body,
beyond the imperceptible
embraces of the trees,
as close as the double caress
of my dog’s back,
holding silences and distillations,
final emanations and shadows
of a day that washes away
drop
by
drop
so happy.
Gota a gota
Tierra nublada de pasos.
Inercia de mi andar,
seguridad de huellas que no veo.
No miro hacia atrás, no giro mi cabeza,
sólo siento en el rostro
un finísimo tejido de agua y aire,
es allí donde me dejo caer,
donde el viento se siente
golpeado por mi cuerpo,
más allá de los abrazos
imperceptibles de los árboles,
tan cerca de la doble caricia
del lomo de mi perro,
reteniendo silencios y destilaciones,
emanaciones últimas y sombras
de un día que se agota
gota
a
gota
tan feliz.
Miguel Avero was born in Montevideo, Uruguay in 1984. He is the author of a poetry collection, Arca de aserrín. His poems, translated by Jona Colson, have appeared in Palabras errantes and in Prairie Schooner and are forthcoming in América invertida: An Anthology of Younger Uruguayan Poets, edited by Jesse Lee Kercheval.
Jona Colson is the author of Said Through Glass (WWPH, 2018), winner of the Jean Feldman Poetry Prize from the Washington Writers' Publishing House. He received his BA in English and Spanish from Goucher College, a Master of Arts in Linguistics from George Mason University, and a Master of Fine Arts from American University. His poems have appeared in Ploughshares, The Southern Review, Prairie Schooner, and The Massachusetts Review. He is an associate professor of ESL at Montgomery College in Maryland and lives in Washington, DC.