Gruss - 2 translated poems

Yo estuve a la orilla de un río

Somos parecidos a esos sapos que en la austera noche

de los pantanos se llaman sin verse, doblegando con

su grito de amor toda la fatalidad del universo. 

—René Char 

Yo estuve a la orilla de un río

blanco, yo vi un río blanco desde mi ojo

terriblemente azul

por la mirilla de un arbusto, 

no la alcantarilla.

Palpé los ganglios de ese río, latían

como laten los sapos de René Char,

afortunados.

Desde ese ojo vi que mi sombra bailaba

mientras yo observaba quieta

la orilla, la de un río blanco. Estuve

como puede estar cualquiera, de paso,

de rodillas, así miré, toqué una arena abandonada,

blanca como un río que vi desde la orilla.

Nunca digan que poseo una voz

particular, nunca mi garganta plagió tanto

el borde de ese río.

Yo estuve a orillas de un río

blanco como arena abandonada, arena tibia,

danzaba y mi sombra

miraba el horizonte, buscaba un rumbo,

islas perdidas buscaba, a orillas de un río

blanco, de agua blanca.

Esa agua latía como un ganglio,

deseosa,

arropada en un andar tranquilo, 

y dejaba en la orilla sólo arena,

una arena blanca,

abandonada.

I Was on a Riverbank

We are like those toads that, in the austere night of the swamps, 

call to each other without seeing their mate, their cry of love 

bending the universe ́s total doom. 

—René Char 

I was on a riverbank—

white, and I saw a white river with my eye

terribly blue

through the peephole of a shrub, 

not the gutter.

I probed the nodes of that river, they pulsated

like René Char ́s toads pulsate,

fortunate.

With this eye I saw my shadow dancing

while I kept still, observing

the shore, the one belonging to a white river. I was there

as anyone might be, just passing through,

on my knees, that ́s how I watched, I touched abandoned sand

white like a river I’d seen from the shore.

Never say that I have a distinctive

voice, my throat copied

that riverbank more than I’d ever done.

I was on a riverbank

white like abandoned sand, warm sand,

I danced and my shadow

scanned the horizon, searching for a direction,

for lost islands, sought after; on a riverbank

a white one, with white water.

That water pulsated like a node,

desirous,

wrapped around its peaceful gait, 

and leaving on the riverbank only sand,

white sand,

abandoned.

Irene Gruss (1950–2019), who passed away on Christmas Day 2018, was one of the leading contemporary poets in the Spanish language. Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, her work is distinguished by a poetic voice that is both oracular and deeply personal. 

"I Was on a Riverbank” was previously published in Catamaran Literary Reader

Zack Rogow was a co-winner of the PEN/Book-of-the-Month Club Translation Award for Earthlight by André Breton, and winner of a Bay Area Book Reviewers Award (BABRA) for his translation of George Sand’s novel, Horace. His co-translation of Shipwrecked on a Traffic Island and Other Previously Untranslated Gems by Colette was published by SUNY Press. His English version of Colette’s novel Green Wheat was nominated for the PEN/Book-of-the-Month Club Translation Award and for the Northern California Book Award in translation. Rogow edited two volumes of TWO LINES: World Writing in Translation.

Eugenio Polisky authored the poetry collections silencio en la nada luz [silence in nothingness light]; Quimera Bulevar [Pipe-Dream Boulevard]; and desde el fondo [from the depths]. He translated the Fundación Shakespeare Argentina’s reprint of Leopoldo Lugones’ Dos Ilustres Lunáticos O La Divergencia Universal [Two Illustrious Lunatics or The Universal Divergence]. Polisky has translated poetry by Irene Gruss, Liliana Díaz Mindurry, Daniel Freidemberg, and Hugo Mujica into English, as well as poetry by Anne Carson and Dan Bellm into Spanish. In addition to his writing and translating, he hosts a monthly radio program in Buenos Aires.