The Ekphrastic Review
  • The Ekphrastic Review
  • The Ekphrastic Challenges
    • Challenge Archives
  • Ebooks
  • Prizes
  • Book Shelf
    • TERcets Podcast
  • The Ekphrastic Academy
  • Give
  • Submit
  • Contact
  • About/Masthead

Promenade (1914) by August Macke, by Ericka Ghersi (translated by Toshiya Kamei)

7/13/2019

1 Comment

 
Picture
Promenade, by August Macke (Germany) 1914 .

Paseo de a tres (1914) de August Macke
 
Otro agente ha llegado,
y la identidad
es el pasaporte difícil de esconder.
Tomó de la sangre
aún derramada en los rosales,
limpió su rostro
y en sus ojos cansados estabas tú,
tatuada sobre un fondo blanco.
 
Deja abiertas las ventanas que dan al jardín
para que las hojas vuelen
y caigan como cuando no hay nada qué decir.
Recuerda que en el último cuerpo
hubo culpa
y los gatos rasgaron el óleo.
Las hormigas guardaron algo de los cadáveres,
aquello que servirá para invierno. Y tú,
regresaste a besar mi pecho. Pero muchacha,
tengo la nostalgia de un vientre vacío,
y tus hormigas se angustian mientras camino,
esperando que mi cuerpo caiga
sobre las rutas abandonadas.
 
Es fácil para ti arrastrarme hacia tu bosque,
hundirme en la firmeza de los huesos de tus muertos,
herirme entre los rosales.
Sin embargo, me levantas.
No me quieres para las moscas.

Ericka Ghersi 
 
Promenade (1914) by August Macke

Another agent has arrived,
and his identity
is the passport hard to hide.
He drank the blood
still wet on the rosebushes
and wiped his face.
His weary eyes mirrored you,
tattooed on a white background.
 
Keep the windows overlooking the garden open
so that the leaves fly
and fall like when there's nothing to say.
Remember that there was guilt
in the last body
and the cats ripped the oil painting apart.
The ants kept something from the dead bodies,
something that would be useful in winter. And you
came back to kiss my chest. But girl,
I feel nostalgic like an empty womb,
and your ants get upset while I walk,
they wait for my body to fall
on the abandoned roads.
 
It's easy for you to drag me to your woods,
hide me in the hard bones of your dead,
hurt me in the rosebushes.
But you pick me up.
You don't want to leave me for the flies.
 
Ericka Ghersi (translated by Toshiya Kamei)

This poem first appeared in Parthenon West Review.

Born in Peru, Ericka Ghersi obtained her PhD from the University of Florida. She currently lives in Gainesville, Florida, where she is an Associate Professor at Santa Fe College. She is the author of the poetry collections Zenobia y el anciano (1994) and Contra la ausencia (2002). Her poems have also appeared in the bilingual anthology La Canasta.

Toshiya Kamei holds an MFA in Literary Translation from the University of Arkansas. His translations include Liliana Blum's The Curse of Eve and Other Stories (2008), Naoko Awa's The Fox's Window and Other Stories (2010), Espido Freire's Irlanda (2011), and Selfa Chew's Silent Herons (2012). Other translations have appeared in The Global Game (2008), Sudden Fiction Latino (2010), and My Mother She Killed Me, My Father He Ate Me (2010).
1 Comment
Janette
7/13/2019 12:37:33 pm

Beautiful poem and translation. Brava!

Reply

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    The Ekphrastic Review
    Picture
    Current Prompt
    Picture
    COOKIES/PRIVACY

    This website uses marketing and tracking technologies. Opting out of this will opt you out of all cookies, except for those needed to run the website. Note that some products may not work as well without tracking cookies.

    Opt Out of Cookies
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Join us: Facebook and Bluesky
    @ekphrasticreview.



    ​
    ​Archives
    ​

    June 2025
    May 2025
    April 2025
    March 2025
    February 2025
    January 2025
    December 2024
    November 2024
    October 2024
    September 2024
    August 2024
    July 2024
    June 2024
    May 2024
    April 2024
    March 2024
    February 2024
    January 2024
    December 2023
    November 2023
    October 2023
    September 2023
    August 2023
    July 2023
    June 2023
    May 2023
    April 2023
    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015

    Lorette C. Luzajic [email protected] 

  • The Ekphrastic Review
  • The Ekphrastic Challenges
    • Challenge Archives
  • Ebooks
  • Prizes
  • Book Shelf
    • TERcets Podcast
  • The Ekphrastic Academy
  • Give
  • Submit
  • Contact
  • About/Masthead