A poem by Dionisio Cañas translated by Orlando Hernández.
Caballo ahogado en un lago
by Dionisio CañasFueron un caballo quizás aquellos huesos
bruñidos por el barro y así restituidos
por la fuerza feroz de la lluvia en primavera
Bien pudimos haber pensado que era el azar
pero fue cierto designio tentación o tortura
que crecía tenaz entre nosotros
Era el lago un espacio entregado al silencio
sólo surcado por el bulto de algún ave
red mortal para un caballo en su carrera
y para nosotros turbio espejo donde mirar el tiempo
Fuimos así el reverso de una escena de caza
donde un caballo huía
perseguido por su sombra
y atrapado quedaba por las aguas
Vimos su cadáver alzado sobre un espeso cielo
y corrimos perseguidos por el miedo
de sentirnos desposeídos de repente
de aquel amor que hoy estamos reescribiendo.
Horse Drowned in a Lake
by Dionisio CañasThey were a horse perhaps, those bones
burnished by the mud and in that way restored
by spring rain’s fierce force
We could have easily thought it was chance
but it was a certain design, temptation, or torture
that was growing between us
The lake was a space handed over to silence
furrowed only by the swell of a single bird
fatal net, for a horse in its step and for us
a muddy mirror we watched time in
So were we a chase scene, reversed
in which a horse fled
pursued by its shadow
and stayed snared in the waters
We saw its corpse raised over a thick sky
and we ran, pursued by fear
of feeling suddenly stripped
of the love that today we’re rewriting.
translated from Spanish by Orlando Hernández