Cuatro Poemas

Margarita Losada Vargas’s poetic world dissects both language and the body, establishing a constant analogy between the two, a web woven from various impressions of existence that reveals what inhabits the “intermediate” spaces. This translation stems from this analogy in its most essential aspects. Losada Vargas always builds her poems from images. Some stylistic features of her particularly inventive construction of these images include her refusal to use capital letters and punctuation marks. These decisions can feel much more pronounced in English, for example in the case of the pronoun “I”, which is traditionally capitalized. The deceptively simple act of choosing “i” replicates Losada Vargas's stylistic choices, which hope to challenge the reader to see beyond the hierarchy that separates one word from another, encouraging them to focus on the images evoked in each poem instead. Cadence and rhythm are other elements that contribute to both aesthetic experience and meaning in this nearly ego-free poetry. Each word in the translation was chosen for its rhythmic essence to match the vibrato in the original Spanish and other sonic effects that indicate emphasis in the absence of capital letters.

Though they are short, do not be fooled—Losada Vargas’s poems possess immense depth. The form and content of both the original texts and the translations
sketch the outline of what lies within our psyche. It is my hope that the reader will approach these brief images of the human spirit and all of their ambiguities with patience, curiosity, and eyes wide open.