Pedro Serrano
Port
PUERTO
La ciudad sabe a mar,
da campanazos de salitre,
mece los brazos largos de sus sauces,
lame los ateridos huesos de sus plátanos,
se escapa en una enmarañada deserción.
Mueve los pies frenética en el cielo,
baila en el viento y en el agua,
y zapatea sus choclos con la lluvia, tap, tap.
Corre desesperada de callejón en callejón,
huye como si fuera la misma niebla,
y se va a pique con todo su ruidero.
Y más abajo el alma humana, su humareda, su chimenea,
su montón de infiernillos y discordias,
sus mil pasos prendidos a cada día.
Un inmenso mar de luciérnagas,
el puerto,
sus hombres y mujeres.
PORT
The town has a tang of the sea,
its bells ring peals of saltpetre,
it cradles the long arms of its willows,
it licks the numb bones of its plane trees,
it escapes in a tangled defection.
Wildly it waves its feet in the sky,
waltzes in the wind and the water,
and tap-dances in sturdy lace-ups with the rain, clack, clack.
It runs in desperation from alley to alley,
flees as though fog itself
and founders with all its clatter.
And down further, the human soul, its cloud of smoke, its chimney,
its stack of petty hells and discords,
its thousand footsteps clinging to each day.
A vast sea of fireflies,
the port
with its men and women.
Translated by Anna Crowe
Page(s) 54
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