El oráculo dijo
que para ser feliz
debería vivir en una casa
levantada sobre un lugar que no
estuviera ni dentro
ni fuera
de la ciudad.
Yo he cumplido mi parte.
The oracle said
that in order to be happy
you should live in a house
raised above a place that is
neither inside nor
outside
the city.
I’ve done my part.
translated from Spanish by Curtis BauerJuan Antonio González-Iglesias is Professor of Latin Philology at the University of Salamanca, Spain. He has translated Ovid, anonymous Romans, Horace, Catullus, James Laughlin, Stendhal and Sebastiano Grasso. In addition to Eros es más, his other collections of poetry include Del lado del amor (collected poems, 1994-2009), La hermosura del héroe (Premio Vicente Núńez, 1993), Esto es mi cuerpo (Visor, 1997), Más hermosura (CELYA, 2002), Un ángulo me basta (IV Premio Internacional de Poesía Generación del 27, Visor, 2002) and Olímpicas (El Gaviero Ediciones, 2005). Eros es más was selected by El Cultural, El Mundo as the best collection of poetry in Spain in 2007.
Curtis Bauer is the author of two poetry collections, most recently The Real Cause for Your Absence (C&R Press, 2013). He is also a translator of poetry and prose from the Spanish; his publications include the full-length poetry collections Eros Is More, by Juan Antonio González Iglesias (forthcoming from Alice James Books in 2014) and From Behind What Landscape, by Luis Muñoz (forthcoming from Vaso Roto Ediciones in 2014). He is the publisher and editor of Q Avenue Press Chapbooks, the Spanish Translations Editor for From the Fishouse, and “Emerging Spanish Poets” Series Editor for Vaso Roto Ediciones. He teaches Creative Writing and Comparative Literature at Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas.