Entrevista / Rafael Cadenas

translated from Rafael Cadenas, Antologia (Madrid: Coleccion Visor, 1999)



Interview

In his final days
the old poet
reached the Great Uncertainty;
but since he had become reticent
he gave no details about his state.
He only felt--he declared--
that he had lost his life.
I would rather know what he didn't say
over any one of his poems.
Perhaps he, too, couldn't see
where the mistake was;
but throughout the conversation
a dilemma emerges between the lines: art
is an offering
or vanity.