Ulalume Gonzalez De Leon
Translated from the Spanish by Terry Ehret, John Johnson & Nancy J. Morales
There are days when we awake with one less arm
when a foot is as remote as if it belonged to an ancestor or as if it were about to be born
in another body
when we turn our back on our backs
when our eyelids wonder if they are eyelids for opening or closing

then we stalk the punctual throb with which the blood repeats a name
in the bend of an artery
corner with the heart
before crossing that dangerous arena
that quagmire of names and dreams
or to risk it armed with the cry with which that name is pronounced

and the arena, taken forever
in a love-coup
to travel the forgotten provinces
recover all the possible ways a body has
to be a body
so elbows and knees might hear
and the smile at the nape of the neck might appear
and the eyes of the heels open


En Busca del Cuerpo Perdido

Hay días en que amanecemos con un brazo de menos
en que un pie es tan remoto como si perteneciera a un antepasado o como si estuviera por nacer
en otro cuerpo
en que damos la espalda a nuestra espalda
en que los párpados se preguntan si son párpados de abrirse o de cerrarse

entonces acechamos el latido en punto con que repite la sangre un nombre
en el recodo de una arteria
esquina con el corazón
antes de atravesar esa plaza de peligro
ese tembladeral de los nombres y los sueños
o para atravesarla armado del grito con que ese nombre se pronuncia

y tomada la plaza para siempre
en un golpe de estado amoroso
recorrer las provincias olvidadas
recuperar las maneras límites que tiene un cuerpo
de ser cuerpo
para que los codos y las rodillas oigan
y se dibuje la sonrisa de la nuca
y se abran los ojos de los talones
from the journal EXCHANGES
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When I first read “In Search of the Lost Body,” I was captivated by the poet’s blend of erotic imagery and anatomical vocabulary in an unconventional syntax. To discover how this worked, I dismantled the language, reassembling it into new patterns. Some thirty years later, when my partners and I began translating UGL’s poetry, I was delighted to discover that the author herself practiced the art of plagios, reworking stolen language.
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