Elmys García Rodríguez

Now I Understand Why I Have So Often Doubted My Sanity

(versión en español)

I doubt that this city
will ever belong to me.
Tomorrow, or some night or other,
I will find myself being born in another place.
Here I lost the map
of the bridges of Europe.
Who invented the language of my body
in this provincial town?
It makes one want to go out into the street
with one’s heart hanging out.
Storms will be sighted.
The wound is deeper
than you assume,
the Tower of Babel cannot withstand
a cave-in.
From one side of the sun
I listen to Rocinante.
January is no longer the same
as we remember.
Where will my music box be,
my paint brush?
On those days the crows
will come to visit me.
Since I am not so exact,
I will be transformed into a snail.
It is true
one does not have to travel far
in an unending sphere.
For a reasonable price I sell
all of my nostalgia.
Even the dog sleeps,
gravitating towards my bed.
There is no way to rid myself
of this uneasiness.
I discover myself on Vallejo’s pillow.
I shall guard this poem
as a goldsmith guards his treasure.

Let us invoke a psalm
that someday
this city may belong to me.

Holguin, Cuba

Translated by Sandra Ptacek