scatteredprayerbeads:ecc-poetry:la bandera / américaelisa chavez¿Sabes qué?En B
scatteredprayerbeads:ecc-poetry:la bandera / américaelisa chavez¿Sabes qué?En Barcelona, hay catedral inconclusa.Hace más que un siglo, pálidos cuerpos de santos y agujas sin resoluciónse han formado como coral.¿Cuántos manos la tocaron?¿Cuánto tenemos que esperarpara el coronamiento?Perdemos la paciencia.Muchas personas nos han hecho promesasy cada incompleta nos merma.Sin embargo, todo el mundo la visita.Quizás la gente cree enla promesa de su mármol.Quizás mitad-maravillaes mejor que nada.Cuando te vengo, sagrada,traigo ladrillo.Don’t you know?This country is like returning to my childhood home and finding bodies in the drywall.Like learning I’ve been bred on bone-dustand martyr marrow.Not my parents’ strong hands. Not my spine.This country’s concrete lullaby makes my mind a petri dish:replicate and replicate.It makes a coroner of me.The sins I’ve eatenembarrass me,this genteel cannibal feast.How could I not knowwhose marbled meat?America, you cauldron.You sacred vein.You tourniquet.Miss Translated is an exploration of identity, language, family history, and the things that get lost in translation. If you like this work, consider buying the Miss Translated chapbook. Proceeds benefit the New Sanctuary Coalition, an immigrant rights group based in NYC. You can also support the author on Patreon. [my attempt at a translation of the Spanish – op, ask me to delete it if you disapprove.]the flag / Americanelisa chavezYou know what?In Barcelona, there is an unfinished cathedral.For over a century,Saints’ pallid corpses*and spires without resolutionhave formed themselves like coral.How many hands have touched her?**How long must we wait for the crowning?***We are losing patience.So many peoplehave made us promisesand each one unkept diminishes us.****Nevertheless,the whole world***** visits her.Perhaps people believe in the promise of her marble.Perhaps half a marvelis better than nothing.When I come to you, sagrada,******I am bringing brick.________*or just bodies** antecedent is the cathedral, so could also translate this as it, but i thought personification of the cathedral was fitting*** or culmination but i wanted to keep that crown root in there; i also imagine the poet intends this play on words**** i had trouble with this line so it might be wrong; also diminishes us could also be translated reduces us or even uses us up.***** or just everyone****** I keep this word untranslated since we’re talking about the Sagrada Familia here, but in English it’d be sacred. (Also, i suppose sagrada’s antecedent might not be the cathedral but instead the speaker, if the speaker is feminine) -- source link
#reader translation#spanish poetry