Nighthawks
El origen de todas las cosas… ¿cuándo fue?
Esta noche habrá sido. La noche es la gran máquina.
Ahora toca inventarles un alma, una palabra,
ahora habrá que pactarles una maternidad.
O quizá sea al revés: quizá cada palabra es una búsqueda
de la cosa que nombra.
Juan Andrés García Román,
El Fósforo Astillado (DVD, 2008)
Estamos aquí apoyados pero qué te tengo que decir si la noche está
entrando a todas luces con su aire de vino italiano y sus noctívagos
tú y yo preguntas en alto tú y yo preguntas preguntas quizá si puede
haber un
tú
si puede haber un
yo.
Estamos mirándonos el ombligo einander mirándonos nocturnos
mirándonos nerviosos y me gustaría pedirte sí vale que duermas
conmigo pero pedirte
pedirte
que te despiertes
que la mañana
la mañana
es tuya
y no solo los remolinos inconclusos de la noche.
Puedes llamarme como quieras tienes mi permiso pero
tú
despierta
la mañana es demasiado clara
y mis retinas son sensibles son demasiado sensibles a la oscuridad y
tu ojos son los pasos de los búhos y tienen las patitas de las ardillas la
palabra
la palabra
puedes cambiarme el nombre
sustantivos comunes
llamarme ardilla
o polilla
o merecedora de la luz
o mariposa suicida
puedes llamarme
animal o cintura
pero
despierta donde estés
despierta
no solo la luz es tuya
despierta esta vez.
Nighthawks
Translated by Heath Wing
The origin of all things … when was it?
It must have been that night. Night is the great machine.
Now it’s time to invent a soul for them, a word,
now one must make a pact of motherhood.
Or maybe it’s the other way around: maybe each word is a quest
for the thing that names.
Juan Andrés García Román,
The Splintered Match (DVD, 2008)
We are against a wall here but I have to tell you if the night is on full
blast with its air of Italian wine and its late nights you and I you ask
aloud you and I you ask you ask perhaps if there can be a
you
if there can be an
I.
We are here looking at each other’s belly buttons einander* looking at
our nocturnal selves looking at our nervous selves and I would like to
ask you yes it’s ok if you spend the night with me but to ask you
to ask you
to wake up
for tomorrow
tomorrow
is yours
and not only the inconclusive windmills of the night.
You can call me whatever you want you have my permission but
you
wake up
tomorrow is too clear
and my retinas are sensitive are too sensitive in the dark and your eyes
are footsteps of owls and they have squirrel feet the word
the word
you can change my name
common nouns
to call me squirrel
or moth
or deserver of light
or suicidal butterfly
you can call me
animal or waist
but
wake up wherever you are
wake up
the light is not only yours
wake up this time.
*German word meaning “one another” or “each other.” The translator chose to keep the world as it is found in the Spanish original.
Bio:
Sara R. Gallardo (Ponferrada, 1989) lives in Potsdam (Germany), where she is in her last year studying journalism on her Erasmus Scholarship. Prior to that, she studied en Valladolid, where she formed part of the literary group COLMO, a word festival organizer, and worked with her literature professor Javier García Rodríquez. Her first book is titled Epidermia (El Gaviero Editions, 2011). She has also participated in the anthology Tenían veinte años y estaban locos (La Bella Varsovia, 2011), coordinated by Luna Miguel. She has collaborated with a variety of written media, as well as co-directed a radio program whose texts have appeared in several fanzines and magazines.
Heath Wing a West Texas native, received a bachelor’s in Spanish from Utah State University, and holds a Master’s in Spanish from Texas Tech University. He is currently a doctoral candidate at Texas Tech, specializing in Southern Cone Latin American literature as well as comparative literature. He is currently broadening his horizons to prose writing and poetry translation. Heath wears alpargatas and a boina during the week, changing them for boots and two-stepping on the weekends.