TRANSLATION OF OSDANY MORALES
WHAT WAS YOUR FAVORITE PLACE TO VISIT AS A CHILD?
They tried to change the name
to THE VICTORY
but everyone kept calling it
THE BUTCHERY
a puddle of melted tin where
beerbellies played dominos and their wives
smeared themselves with mud
that smelled like rotten eggs
my older SISTERS tanned
in the parched sun and turned themselves over
on the ends of the eight jetties
at a crossroads
I found an IGUANA
with a smashed skull
the red mangrove
tortured the borders of the beach
my mother was a MARC CHAGALL
my father, an IVES KLEIN
INTERGALACTIC SLABS of concrete
replaced the seashore; the waves
there broke quietly
and covered landslides of silt
in the sand I chased automaton crabs
parts of a robot dismembered ACCIDENTALLY
even their fragments chirping with hope
of reunion
WHAT WAS YOUR FAVORITE PLACE TO VISIT AS A CHILD?
intentaron cambiarle el nombre
ponerle LA VICTORIA
pero la gente siguió diciéndole
LA TASAJERA
un charco de estaño derretido donde
los barrigones jugaban dominó y sus mujeres
se embadurnaban de un fango
con olor a huevo
mis HERMANAS mayores se bronceaban
bajo un sol mustio tiradas bocabajo
en la punta de alguno de los ocho puentes
en un cruce de caminos
encontré un CHIPOJO
con el cráneo aplastado
el mangle rojo
torturaba los límites de la playa
mi madre era un MARC CHAGALL
mi padre, un IVES KLEIN
PLANCHAS SIDERALES de hormigón
retocaban la entrada al mar; las olas
se partían allí sin dramatismo
y llenaban de limo los derrumbes
en la arena me huían cangrejos autómatas
piezas de un robot desarticulado POR AZAR
cuyos fragmentos aún chirriaban la esperanza
de la reunificación
HOW MANY BONES HAVE YOU BROKEN?
At ten I fell
on the edge of a sidewalk; we were twelve
reaching for a ball in the AIR
they blamed her who was twice our age
for her burning hormones
COMPETING with macho prepubescents
in the XRAYS you could see the splinter detached
like a spaceship docking in the horizon of the ulna
in the village they could not put on a cast
we got into the Chevrolet BEL AIR
and in the nearest hospital
they threw the cold plaster on me
in the waiting room I heard an old guy say
he had BROKEN a hand
when he was ten; I thought it was a ritual
EVERYONE had to go through.
HOW MANY BONES HAVE YOU BROKEN?
a los diez años caí
sobre el contén de una acera; éramos doce
en el AIRE alcanzando una pelota
culparon a la que nos doblaba la edad
por quemar sus hormonas
COMPITIENDO con los machos impúberes
en la RADIOGRAFÍA se veía la astilla desprendida
como una nave que fuera a aterrizar en el horizonte del cúbito
en el pueblo no ponían yesos
abordamos el chevrolet BEL AIR
y en el hospital más cercano
me tiraron encima la mezcla fría
en la sala de espera escuché a un viejo decir
que se había FRACTURADO una mano
a los diez años; pensé que era un ritual
por el que TODOS debíamos pasar
WHAT IS THE STREET NUMBER OF THE HOUSE YOU GREW UP IN?
it became life-or-death to have a backyard
we put everything in a truck and moved
two hundred meters around THE CORNER
to a hectic neighborhood
at the edge of the socialist commune
that was already struggling
the PAN AMERICAN GAMES
gave away brooches that repeated
a morse-code version of
I LOVE THIS ISLAND I AM CARIBBEAN
I COULD NEVER STEP ON THE MAINLAND
installed in a tile hut
with PALM WOOD walls
it was like living in the stomach of a bug
the Tarkovskian backyard opened onto a grove
that took up half a block
below the laundry
at the coordinates of the main house
I left behind a jug of MARBLES
a whole fortune
I was eleven
WHAT IS THE STREET NUMBER OF THE HOUSE YOU GREW UP IN?
se hizo vital ser dueños de un patio
metimos todo en un camión y nos movimos
unos doscientos metros en L
hasta un vecindario caldeado
al margen de la comunión socialista
que ya se tambaleaba
los JUEGOS PANAMERICANOS
regaban chapas que repetían
una traducción morse de
AMO ESTA ISLA SOY EL CARIBE
JAMAS PODRÍA PISAR TIERRA FIRME
instalados en una choza de tejas
con paredes de TABLAS DE PALMA
era vivir en el estómago de un bicho
el patio tarkovskiano se abría en una arboleda
que se llevaba media manzana
bajo el lavadero
en las coordenadas de la primera casa
dejé olvidada una jarra de CANIQUES
toda una fortuna, yo cumplía
once años
WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE ANIMAL?
you have to crack it in TWO HALVES with an axe
hang them through an open hole in each cheek
skin them with a silver knife
separate this SNOW WHITE SHEET in strips
through which the blade runs twice
in a trench that doesn’t cut across the skin
on the thinner side to bury one, two
and on the third TO DARE, in a way that results
in a square of six pale dice
CUT BY CUT the pig
gives way to geometry
WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE ANIMAL?
hay que rajarlo en DOS MITADES con un hacha
colgarlas por un agujero abierto en cada cachete
desollar con un cuchillo plateado
esa SÁBANA NÍVEA se separa en tiras
por las que corre la hoja dos veces
en una zanja que no atraviese la dermis
por el lado más flaco hundir una, dos
y al tercero ATREVERSE, de modo que resulte
un cuadrado de seis pálidos dados
CORTE A CORTE el puerco
va dando paso a la geometría
WHAT ARE THE LAST 5 DIGITS OF YOUR SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBER?
I stole fifty two books
from the josé elias entralgo public library
the same year in which
I was chosen
BEST READER
in the juvenile category
WHAT ARE THE LAST 5 DIGITS OF YOUR SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBER?
robé cincuenta y dos libros
de la biblioteca pública josé elías entralgo
el mismo año en que
fui seleccionado
MEJOR LECTOR
en la categoría juvenil
Osdany Morales was born in Nueva Paz, Cuba, in 1981. Author of two books of short stories (Minuciosas puertas estrechas, 2007; Antes de los aviones, 2013), two novels (Papyrus, 2012; Zozobra, 2018), and a poetry collection (El pasado es un pueblo solitario, 2015), he has received the 2006 David Award, a 2008 Casa de Teatro prize, and the 2012 Alejo Carpentier Award.
Harry Bauld was included by Matthew Dickman in Best New Poets 2012. His poetry collections are The Uncorrected Eye and How to Paint a Dead Man. Work has appeared in numerous journals and anthologies in the U.S. and U.K. and won the New Millenium Writings Award and the Milton Kessler Poetry Prize. He divides his time between New York and the Spanish Basque Country.