Translated from Spanish

IN THE HOUSE ON AGUARICO STREET

You are also scared.
Absurd how narrow the bedroom is
–and the windows, with ox-like eyes
observing all of it–
our members resist the joy.

The light that reveals us should be more ambient,
the glare a little dimmer
on the cot.
Then, your shoulders   your hips
                and your fingers
–entangled with essential freedom–
would form a symmetry with mine
until we lost control.

EN LA CASA DE AGUARICO

Tú también tienes miedo.
Absurda la estrechez del dormitorio
–y las ventanas, con ojos como de buey
observándolo todo–
nuestros miembros se resisten a la fiesta.

Debiera ser menor la luz que nos descubre,
menor el resplandor de sus reflejos
sobre el catre.
Entonces, tus hombros   tus caderas
                     y tus dedos
–entrelazados en libertad propicia–
formarían simetría con los míos
hasta perder la calma.

A POETICS

Not that a poem
is like an artifact
meant to flood the city
tender and quivering
like a vulva in love.
Nor that these lines
surround you,
a pale monster that appeared
at the end of times.
Only our voracious bodies
and at the center, memory
competing with a pinball machine
suddenly gone wild.
We captured the moment
and now lie naked
like ordinary demigods.

POÉTICA

No que el poema
sea un artificio
para inundar la ciudad
frágil y palpitante
como un sexo enamorado.
Ni que estas líneas
te envuelvan
pálido monstruo aparecido
al final de las edades.
Sólo nuestros cuerpos voraces
y al centro mi memoria
compitiendo con una máquina de pinbol
súbitamente enloquecida.
Hemos cogido el instante
y yacemos desnudos
burdos semidioses.

Peruvian poet and translator Mariela Dreyfus is the author of seven poetry books, published together in the volume Gravedad: Poemas reunidos (Artepoética, 2017). She currently teaches poetry and literary translation at New York University in the MFA in Creative Writing in the Spanish program.

Carmen Giménez Smith is co-director for CantoMundo, the publisher of Noemi Press, an English professor at Virginia Tech, and, with Steph Burt, poetry editor of The Nation. Her poetry collection Be Recorder from Graywolf Press was shortlisted for the National Book Award in 2019 and in 2018 she published Cruel Futures in the City Lights Spotlight Series.

Zachary de los Dolores is a poet, translator and Spanish professor at Windward Community College in Oahu. He edited Kloaka: antología poética (Amargord, 2014). Zachary has published the poetry collection Robos, Setas & Sombras (Huerga & Fierro, 2014). His latest collection is Termites: the illegal occupation of paradise (Hesterglock Press, 2018).