They were a horse perhaps

A poem by Dionisio Cañas translated by Orlando Hernández. 

Foto de Dionisio Cañas _Cruz CantónHernández_author-photo

 

 

 

 

 

Caballo ahogado en un lago

by Dionisio Cañas

Fueron 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 Cañas

They 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
more>>