For this week’s instalment of our In This Together column, we present a poem by Spanish writer Miguel Ángel Pozo Montaño. The poem was originally published as part of the Inversos poetry project, which was created to make this period of lockdown more bearable and to enable us to be more united than ever, despite the distance. The poems, written during lockdown by different poets worldwide, will be compiled in an anthology after lockdown ends. Translator Andreea Iulia Scridon says of this poem, “Snails”: “I was attracted to the unusual visual element of the snail, which sets the poem apart from many others that I’ve read on social media outlets, which all tend to be quite literal.”
Snails
by Miguel Ángel Pozo
Now all of us are snails.
All of us now are snails
with slow applause all of us
slow applause
in terraces that
seek relief, air or light.
Because
nothing is permanent
you tell me, nothing.
And the lungs
evaporate,
for lack of oxygen
in hospitals
for lack of oxygen
in hospitals
for lack of oxygen
in.
And meanwhile,
time is the drool of the snail
that drags. That drags us.
And meanwhile
time is the skin and the breath
that is dealt slight
blows, that suffers
for its desire to grip onto
the continuous thread
of the animal that we are
of the animal that tells us:
the hunger that unites us
is journey and memory.
Translated from the Spanish by Andreea Iulia Scridon
This poem was published in Spanish for the Inversos poetry project. You can read it in the original here.
Interested in submitting work to this Feature? We’re looking for literature in translation—specifically fiction, nonfiction, and poetry—that addresses the current pandemic. Send work under 2,500 words directly to blog@asymptotejournal.com. General submission guidelines apply.
Andreea Iulia Scridon is a Romanian-American writer and translator. She studied Comparative Literature at King’s College London and is currently studying Creative Writing at the University of Oxford. She is assistant editor at Asymptote Journal, the Oxford Review of Books, and E Ratio Poetry Journal. Her translations of the short stories of I.D. Sîrbu are forthcoming with AB Press.
Miguel Ángel Pozo Montaño holds a degree in Physiotherapy from the Universidad Autónoma in Madrid and is studying Hispanic Philology at UNED. He has published two poetry collections: Aún y Nada and La lluvia que seremos. He was a finalist for the 2019 Loewe Prize and has participated in many poetry festivals, including the 2019 POEMAD in Madrid.
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