EN VELA
Una vela encendida, una llamita
una velita de cumpleaños, ínfima
en la noche ni siquiera inmensa
sino sólo noche, todo noche
sin límites de tiempo ni de luz
sin viento, inmóvil, sólo el aire inmóvil
no oscuro, sólo noche, todo noche
no estrellas, superficie en qué apoyarse
una velita de cumpleaños sin cumpleaños
sólo velita vacilante consumiéndose
ni siquiera agitada
en la sólo siempre noche
ni siquiera inmensa
SEÑALES DE HUMO
Construí un monumento perenne como el aire
el aire corrompido con los años
por fábricas de voces que lo exhalan
y el viento no termina de llevarse
ese aire enrarecido por alientos
exhalados por fábricas
de siempre efímera modernidad
apenas más durable que las voces
exhaladoras de aire enrarecido
de palabras unidas en sentencias
a veces vacilantes en preguntas
y grandes obras de modernidad
que el viento corrompido arremolina
bate juntos palabras y humos tóxicos
exhalados al unísono
papeles que hace polvo el mero viento
monumentos del aire arrollador
visibles si es que acaso cual niebla indistinguible
el humo de las fábricas de la perenne nada
LA ESCENA DEL CRIMEN
Nuestros muertos reviven en el sueño
y luego al despertar los rematamos
una mezcla agridulce de la atroz felicidad
de volver a tenerlos y el perpetuo desamparo
de nunca retenerlos nunca siempre
el fantasma materno abrazado como aire
agua entre los dedos sangre
el deseo de sueños donde vivir con ellos otra vez
y el terror de otra vez vivir la muerte
al despertar en ese despertar
el cuchillo de vuelta en la escena del crimen
para abrir otra vez la misma herida
No One Answers The Calls
Pablo Ingberg
Listen to the original read by the poet:
Pablo Ingberg (Argentina, 1960) graduated from the University of Buenos Aires with a degree in literature and the best grade average in his class. As a writer, he has published five volumes of poetry, one for children, one novel, and one collection of essays. As a translator, he has translated nearly hundred books Ancient Greek, Latin, English, and Italian (including Sappho, Sophocles, Virgil, Catullus, Austen, Melville, Whitman, Wharton, Joyce, Woolf, Fitzgerald, Svevo, and Pirandello). His poems, fiction, essays, and short translations have appeared in literary reviews and supplements in the Americas and Europe. He was the general editor of Shakespeare's Obras Completas (Complete Works; half of which he translated), and the director of a collection of Greek and Latin titles for Editorial Losada. He has received grants from Argentina, Canada, Switzerland, Italy, and Ireland, and the following awards for his translations: Theatre World (2000), Konex (2014), Aurora Borealis (2017). He has given seminars, lectures, and readings at universities, fairs, and festivals in several countries. He coauthored two translators’ rights bills, and organized an international conference on comparative translation. His poems have been translated into English and Italian.
Sarah Moses has published her translations and stories in Brick, Event, Slice, and Wasafiri, as well as in the chapbooks as they say (Socios Fundadores, 2016) and Those Problems (Proper Tales Press, 2017). She co-translated (with Carolina Orloff) Ariana Harwicz’s novel Die, My Love (Charco Press, 2017), which was longlisted for the Man Booker International Prize in 2018, among other prizes. Her translation of Tender is the Flesh (Pushkin Press; Scribner) by Agustina Bazterrica was published in 2020, and her co-translation (with Tomás Downey) of Sos una sola persona (Socios Fundadores), a selection of poems by Stuart Ross, is due for release in late 2020. At the moment, she is working on a full-length collection of stories, the translation of Fernand Deligny’s writings on cinema for Leiden University Press, and Death By Water, poems by Alberto Manguel for Quattro Books. Originally from Toronto, Sarah has lived in France, Peru, and Brazil, and now spends much of the year in Buenos Aires.
