11.16.2010

Paso en falso / Luis Enrique Belmonte

False Step

The tenants are arriving
with their bitten bread under their arm.

Someone calls me from the roof.
I go up a stair that creaks like toast.
A weak light drains under the doors:
there are anonymous crimes plotted with patience,
to the beat of a sewing machine.

My girlfriend, on the roof, shakes her lace.
My girlfriend invites me to stroll along the cornices.

At this hour I assume all betrayals, all the pages
vainly pecked, all the tightrope walker’s risks.

One false step will make of me
the chill that jolts the sleepers.
One false step will make of me a procession of souls
that will drink –without anyone noticing–
the water from the forgotten cups
on the little night tables.




Paso en falso (2004)




{ Luis Enrique Belmonte, Pasadizo. Poesía reunida 1994-2006, Caracas: Monte Ávila Editores, 2009 }

3 comments:

luis enrique belmonte said...

Hola, Guillermo. Gracias por tu nobleza, tu generosidad y tu amor a la Poesía. Me parece que eres un tremendo traductor. Seguro que eres Poeta. Un grande abrazo desde el Valle de Caracas.
Luis Enrique Belmonte

Guillermo Parra said...

Igualmente, un abrazo para ti Luis Enrique. Me alegra que tu guste la versión. Esta semana publicaré 3 o 4 traducciones de Pasadizo aquí.

"Hay que rehacer en la vigilia" (Alfredo Silva Estrada)

richard lopez said...

wow, cool, i'm digging these translations of belmonte, guillermo. more! more!