Palabras Hechas de Arena
by José Alfredo Escobar Martínez
En la soledad de las dunas
No es tanto lo que la palabra dice
Sino lo que calla.
Cuando digo mar
Callo las clorofilas del azul
Y la sombra del pez que me guarece.
En esta soledad de arena que es el mar Muerto,
Me da miedo nombrar la palabra,
No sea que me espine la lengua.
Words Made of Sand
by José Alfredo Escobar Martínez
In the solitude of dunes
It is not so much what a word says
But what it silences.
When I say ocean
I silence the chorophylls of blue depths
And the fishy shadow that shelters me.
In this sandy solitude that is the Dead Sea,
I fear naming the word,
For my tongue might sting me.
translated from Spanish by Wendy Call