This Translation Tuesday, dive into three poems by the Dominican poet Mateo Morrison, recipient of the Premio Nacional de Literatura. Drawn from Morrison’s collection titled Hard Equilibrium, the poems here exhibit a form of night vision that navigates the reader through a world of emerging outlines. Rendered by poet and translator Ariel Francisco in a language that evokes through its understatement, we are thrilled to share these alluring poems with you. 

Scene of the Dead

Night arrives,
my home becomes
a democratic cemetery
everyone free to choose their tomb.

We lay bare our vocation
of living cadavers.
Not even a whisper is heard
and sometimes
—the neighbors know—
we play at death.

Our flowers no longer grow
their yellow’s become
one with death’s playful touch.

The gnawed doors are rigid
the moths have decided
to cease their gorgeous woodwork. READ MORE…