Led Zeppelin está de fondo,
fumas,
nos colocamos uno frente al otro
como unos edificios sin país.
Led Zeppelin in the background,
you smoke,
we place ourselves in front of each other
like some buildings without a country.
No hay espejos en esta habitación, Eva
ni tiempo desde lo antiguo de tus paredes.
There are no mirrors in this room, Eva
nor time from the past of your walls.
Los espacios se enroscan,
atraviesan mis oídos
mi reflejo se enreda en tu voz.
Spaces curl upon themselves,
cross over my ears,
my reflection entwined in your voice.
Me quedo inmerso en esta brisa
azotando la vieja casa de tu adolescencia,
la misma casa que abandonó su espacio
cuando mi cuerpo entró en tu piel.
I remain immersed in this breeze
beating the old house of your adolescence,
the same house that abandoned your space
when my body entered your skin
Es tu tacto
el centro de un organismo
capaz de ser lodo y costilla.
Is your tact
the center of an organism
capable of being mud and rib.
Te recuestas sobre un montículo de piedras
a esperar que la marea se detenga
en donde nada importa
que no sea esta ciudad
que crece cuando nos miramos.
You lie down on a mound of stones
to wait for the tide to dislodge you
where nothing matters
that it not be this city
that grows when we look at each other.
Y me atrapas, Eva
sobre papeles y puertas
en un diluvio que no concluye
por debajo de tus edificios
reflejando mis pies.
And you trap me, Eva
on paper in doors
in an endless flood
underneath your buidings
reflecting my feet.
Mañana
habrá sido un buen día para partir
y recordar que tus despedidas
siempre sabrán a ciudades cayendo por mi espalda.
Puedo no dormir
mientras pienso
cómo me quiebro
en cada mano que me acaricia la boca
y no lleva tu rostro.
Tomorrow
would have been a good day to leave
and remember that your leavetakings
will always taste of cities falling behind my back.
I cannot sleep
while I think
how I break
in each hand that caresses my mouth
and does not connect to your face.
Persigo tus calles, Eva
y te dejo el cuerpo,
la sangre:
la necesidad de vida.
Aquí,
eres avenida viva,
y me detienes
porque al final,
provocas la huida
cuando mis ojos se hunden en tus tierras.
Tu piel
es la extensión del espacio,
que se acuesta frente a mí,
devora la luz,
yo me convierto
en el iris del universo.
I follow your streets, Eva
and I leave my body,
my blood,
the needs of my life.
Here
you are the living avenue,
and you stop me
because in the end
you provoke flight
when my eyes bury
themselves in your lands.
Your skin
is the extension of space
that lies down
in front of me,
devouring light,
I become
the universe’s iris.
Tras la ventana más próxima
de esta ciudad que me duerme,
espero el destierro.
Esta voz es el edificio que te vio nacer.
Este cuerpo es el ayer que no te dejó morir.
Esta contemplación es la aguja que sutura tu destino.
Esta sombra es tu luz.
Through the nearest window
of this city putting me to bed
I wait for exile.
This voice is the building that saw you born.
This body is the yesterday that did not allow you to die.
This contemplation is the needle that sutures your destiny.
This shadow is your light.
Desde este lado de la pared
tu alma
permanece intacta.
From this side of the wall
your soul
remains intact.
Me recuesto
boca abajo
y giro tu cuerpo
para seguir siendo nosotros
mientras las ciudades nacen.
I lie down again
on my front
and turn your body
to continue being us
while cities are born.
Mi sangre, Eva
está en la estirpe de una urbe
atrapada.
My blood, Eva
is in the lineage of a city
trapped.
No quiero, Eva, arroparme nunca más
ni hablar algún idioma;
no quiero tener estas piernas
estos brazos
ni esta voz que ocupan esta casa.
I do not want you Eva to tuck me in
ever again, or to speak some language;
I do not want to have these legs
these arms
nor this voice that occupies this house.
Dejar este frío
es rondar las calles
con diferentes pieles en un mismo cuerpo.
Let this cold
go for a turn round the streets
with different skins in the same body.
Te fuiste rodeada de pequeños otoños
y yo recorro estas calles de papel
como pincel de flores en tu sexo.
You were surrounded by small autumns
and I stroll along these streets of paper
like a paintbrush of flowers in your sex.
Pero, Eva, a mí no me basta permanecer en estas ciudades de cielo roto:
Sé que el hombre es la constante de todos los males.
y esta casa es el fondo
en el que caen todas las estrellas.
But Eva, it is not enough to stay in these cities of broken sky:
I know that Man is the constant of all evils
and this house the depth
in which all stars fall.
Led Zeppelin está de fondo,
fumas,
nos colocamos uno frente al otro
como unos edificios sin país.
Led Zeppelin in the background,
you smoke,
we place ourselves in front of each other
like some buildings without a country.
Indran Amirthanayagam writes poetry in English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, and Haitian Creole. He is the author of twenty five books of poetry and poetry in translation, including Seer (Hanging Loose Press, 2024), The Runner's Almanac (Spuyten Duyvil, 2024), Origami: Selected Poems of Manuel Ulacia, Blue Window (Dialogos Books) The Migrant States (Hanging Loose Press 2020),Coconuts on Mars (Paperwall, 2019), Uncivil War (Mawenzi House (formerly TSAR), Canada, 2013), and the Paterson Prize-winning The Elephants of Reckoning (Hanging Loose, 1993). Amirthanayagam is a 2020 Foundation for Contemporary Arts fellow in poetry, and a past fellow of the New York Foundation for the Arts, the US/Mexico Fund for Culture, and the MacDowell Colony. He publishes poetry books with Sara Cahill Marron at Beltway Editions (www.beltwayeditions.com), edits The Beltway Poetry Quarterly; curates the reading series Poetry at Beltway Editions, He serves on the Board of DC-ALT. His blog is http://indranamirthanayagam.blogspot.com
Natalia Gomez (Campeche, 1991) is a Communications Specialist and professor. She is a member of the Proyecto de Escuela de Escritores Campechanos (Escecam) and the Consejo Editorial de Cracken Fanzine. She received support from the program PECDA Campeche 2020. She won a fellowship from the Festival Interfaz ISSSTE Yucatán (2017). She has participated in a number of poetry festivals and some of her poems have been published in various on-line magazines.