Distance Between Stones

By Cleofé Campuzano Marco

Translated from the Spanish by Jonathan Simkins

 

I

Here with the sob,
with the sand that spawns
the shaft of things.

Call me from the spiked wall,
from the hidden needle of salt.
Free my hand. From the shadow,
the vanished sun.

Call me from the vital
flash of pain,
from the memory of luck
lost in natal oblivion.

II

Two sloping verses
plunging towards the edict
of the weightless attic they inhabit, they speak.

Of all that remains: old, new,
inscrutable: stone.

 

 

 

 

Distancia Entre Piedras

Cleofé Campuzano Marco

 

I

Con el quejido que hay aquí,
con la arena que medra
el pozo de las cosas.

Llámame desde la pared afilada,
desde la aguja oculta de la sal.
Deja ir mi mano. De la sombra,
el sol difunto.

Llámame desde el instante
indispensable del dolor,
desde el recuerdo de las suertes
perdidas en olvido natal.

II

Dos pendientes versadas
hacia el pronunciamiento
del ático ingrávido, habitan, hablan.

De todo cuanto queda: viejo, nuevo,
enigmático: piedra.

 

 

Translator’s note: This poem is from the collection, “Paz primaria” (Devenir, Madrid, 2021).

 

Translator

Jonathan Simkins is the translator of “El Creacionismo” by Vicente Huidobro (The Lune, 2021); the translator of “The Treasure of the Llanganates” (PUMAEDITORES, 2017), a play by Paúl Puma; and the author of two chapbooks of poetry. His translations have appeared in The Carolina Quarterly, The Chattahoochee Review, Gulf Coast, Nashville Review, Western Humanities Review, and others.

 

Author

Cleofé Campuzano Marco (Murcia, Spain, 1986) completed postgraduate studies at the University of Murcia and the University of Zaragoza. She is the author of “El ocho de las abejas” (Devenir, Madrid, 2018) and “Paz primaria” (Devenir, Madrid, 2021). Her work has appeared in La Galla Ciencia, Empireuma, El coloquio de los perros, Círculo de Poesía, Oculta Lit, and others.