Sample Poems

Issue 7

Sample Poem

Names with asterisks link to bios.

Untitled

To Mother

Edward Hopper: Western Motel, 1957

Song Sent to Hor khang from Prison

from Ficticia, II

Edward Hopper: Western Motel, 1957

Que em vas agradar des del primer dia
ja ho he donat a entendre prou. Tens por
que entrem en l’esfera de l’impossible
quan pretenem crear un “terreny neutral”
per a la comprensió i el respecte
perquè a l’amor, l’έρως, li és inherent
la discòrdia i el recel. L’herència
biològica i l’educació
volgué el destí que et fossin favorables.
Ets íntegra per dir el que cal que es digui
i per guardar silenci quan guardar-lo
ve al cas. Asseguda a l’extrem del llit
amb el cos retallant-se tot enterc
contra la vista de la nostra cambra
sobre els tossals del desert, em preguntes
pel meu lleuger optimisme i jo, que sec
en un racó del quadre escenogràfic,
formulo respostes. I així el susdit
amor, l’amor-a-l’altre, sincronitza
la pujada d’adrenalina abans
que els pneumàtics del cotxe giravoltin
sobre la capa de quitrà bullent
cap a una destinació d’ensomni.

published 2006
Ernest Farrés

Catalan poet Ernest Farrés, born in Igualada in 1967, lives in Barcelona. A journalist with La Vanguardia, he has written three volumes of poems: Clavar-ne una al mall i l’altra a l’enclusa (1996), Mosquits (1998), and Edward Hopper (2006), which won the Englantina d’Or of the Jocs Florals of Barcelona. He also edited the anthology 21 poetes del XXI (2001). In Spain Edward Hopper has been adapted to the stage in both Catalan and Spanish. English versions of Farrés’s poems have recently appeared in Calque, The Nation, Words without Borders, World Literature Today, and Zoland Poetry.

Edward Hopper: Western Motel, 1957

I liked you from the very first day
as I’ve made clear enough. You’re scared stiff
we’re entering the sphere of the impossible
when we try to create a “neutral ground”
for understanding and respect
because discord and mistrust are inherent
in love, ????. Fate willed that
biological inheritance and education
would prove auspicious in you.
You’re honest to say what must be said
and to keep quiet when to do so
is fitting. Perched on the edge of the bed,
your body a very erect outline
against the view from our room
over the desert ridges, you ask
about my shallow optimism and I,
gruff in a corner of the stage set,
formulate answers. And so the aforesaid
love, love-for-the-other, synchronizes
with the boost of adrenaline before
the car’s tires turn
over the layer of boiling tar
heading for some dream-like destination.

translated from Catalan by
Lawrence Venuti

Lawrence Venuti translates from Italian, French, and Catalan. Recent translations include Antonia Pozzi’s Breath: Poems and Letters (2002), the anthology Italy: A Traveler’s Literary Companion (2003), and Massimo Carlotto’s crime novel The Goodbye Kiss (2006). He is the author of The Translator’s Invisibility: A History of Translation (2nd ed., 2008) and The Scandals of Translation: Towards an Ethics of Difference (1998), and the editor of The Translation Studies Reader (2nd ed., 2004).