THE WARTIME ISSUE
Luis Alberto Ambroggio
EL PESO DE LOS CUERPOS
Al fondo de las tumbas
Al fondo de los mares
Al fondo de murmullo de los vientos
- Vicente HuidobroLa sentencia de un cuerpo
vence la apatía de los dioses.
Cuerpos dóciles ante la furia de las ondas.
Cuerpos aferrados al morir y resucitar
y ser luego luminosos.
Cuerpos que son árboles, que son mares,
que son tierra humedecida
que son clamor y ausencia,
que avanzan en el viento
y lloran y reclaman millones de veces
el camino de vuelta
porque nunca pierden la memoria.
Cuerpos-espíritus que se elevan
desafiando a la muerte
como una lumbre sin tregua.
Nosotros les damos a los cuerpos sus alas.
THE WEIGHT OF THE BODIES
In the depth of the tombs
In the depth of the seas
In the depth of the rustling winds
-Vicente HuidobroThe sentence of a body
transcends the gods’ apathy.
Docile bodies before the fury of waves.
Stubborn bodies at death and resurrection
and later luminosity.
Bodies that are trees, that are wide seas,
that are damp earth,
that are clamor and absence,
that charge into the wind
and cry and demand a million times
the way back
because they never lose their memory.
Spirit-bodies that rise
to defy death
like an ever-vigilant light.We give the bodies their wings.
Translated by Yvette Neisser
Winner of the 2004 Spanish Television Award for poems on Solitude, Luis Alberto Ambroggio’s latest books of poetry, Laberintos de Humo and El testigo se desnuda have been widely praised in reviews in Europe, the US (Diario de las Americas), and Latin America. Born in Córdoba Argentina (1945), a citizen of the United States where he has lived since 1967, Ambroggio is the author of nine collections of poetry published in Spain, Argentina, and the US. Ambroggio’s poetry has been selected for the Archives of Hispanic-American Literature of the Library of Congress.
Published in Volume 7, Number 2, Spring 2006.
To read more by this author:
Luis Alberto Ambroggio
Luis Alberto Ambroggio: Langston Hughes Tribute Issue
Luis Alberto Ambroggio: Floricanto Issue