VIDA BREVE

no pude saber con precisión
cuál es la dimensión del viento
ni la medida exacta
de un metro cuadrado de encierro

 

BRIEF LIFE

I could not know precisely
the dimension of the wind
nor the exact measurement
of one square meter of confinement

 

EL ORIGEN DEL OBJETO

la araña
no teje la red
une los puntos de la ausencia
para darle
una forma a la nada

 

THE ORIGEN OF THE OBJECT

the spider
does not weave the web
but unites points of absence
to give
shape to nothingness

 

EL INSTANTE PRECISO

pienso en la palabra
que no llegó a su destino
en la mirada que por azar
se detuvo un segundo antes
de encontrar los ojos deseados
pienso sobre todo
en la noche que ya no volverá
y en las veces que mi vida
hubiera sido otra vida
si hubiera estado
en el instante preciso

 

THE PRECISE INSTANT

I think of the word
that did not reach its destination
in the gaze that by chance
he stopped a second before
to find the desired eyes
I think about everything
in the night that will not come back
and of the times that my life
would have been another life
if I had been
at the precise instant

 

UN POCO DE SER

querer no este
sino otro destino
buscar la luz en el espejo que mira hacia la noche
o intentar una palabra que sostenga la imagen
flotando en el abismo

 

A LITTLE TO BE

want not this
but another destiny
look for the light in the mirror that looks towards the night
or try a word that holds the image
floating in the abyss

 

NOCHE

eres la vida que traigo dentro
la luz de las palabras que no podré decir
o la herida profunda
que permanece abierta

 

NIGHT

you are the life that I bring inside
the light of words that I can’t say
or the deep wound
that remains open

 

– Margarita Losada Vargas

trans. Juan Garrido Salgado
ed. Janet Galbraith.

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Margarita Losada Vargas (Neiva, Huila – Colombia, 1983). Margarita is the author of the book Mejor Arder (2013), and co-author of La Persistencia de lo Inútil (2016). Her poems have been included in the bilingual (Spanish-French) anthology of Colombian poetry Vientre de luz / Ventre de lumiere 14 Colombian poets + Raul Gomez Jattin (Thieves of the Time, 2017) and the Italian poetry anthology Il corpo Il eros (Ladolfi editore, 2018). She currently writes poems, works in psychology, teaches at the university, and sings in a punk rock band.

 

Featured Writer Margarita Losada Vargas: Biographical Note
Featured Translator Juan Garrido Salgado: Biographical Note