Farewell
I, turbulence and lightning among the orange trees,
blossoming blood red amid the whiteness,
warship surrounded by uncertainty.
I, terminal childhood, novice of goodbyes,
skin newly molted, sinuous hips
almost a woman, hair almost fuzz,
as though unwound from a silk cocoon.
I, summer sandals because of the heat.
A solitary gazelle in the classrooms
on the savannah of that high school.
I, endangered so far from the tribe,
herdless animal, prey for the carnivores.
I, buying a ticket and boarding the train,
suitcase with a defective lock,
leaf about to fall, stowaway on a dinghy.
A bolero city lacerating my eyes,
biting my forehead, a guerrilla fighter
firing her tears at the ordeal.
I, bidding myself goodbye, captive and unarmed.
Animal Ma Non Troppo
All right. I withdraw to the confines
of my primal forest, to a swampy fate
where dying is not strange but nature’s
logic, Darwinism without the science.
Here I am. So naked and exposed;
without any more fur or homeland than hail,
without more temple or god than camouflage
to confront the elements as a pariah.
I declare myself to be guilty, pre-social,
hibernating protozoan, penitent larva
in my suburban Gethsemane
with my phonetic inhuman speech.
But in the end, a perennial, a moving target,
magma water, assault fossil,
petrified weapon, financial plague,
the wildest pollen, a bloom of orogenesis.
Two Poems
Isabel Pérez Montalbán
translated from the Spanish by Elena Barcia
Listen to "Farewell" read in the original Spanish by the author:
In many of her poems, including the two poems published here, Pérez Montalbán frequently references her struggle to overcome the many difficulties posed by poverty, her tragic family circumstances, and her total independence at a very young age. The primary challenge in translating these two poems was capturing the cadence and musicality of her voice. Her verse always retains a distinctive sense of rhythm and lyricism which, in her more emotionally disturbing poems, serves as a powerful antidote to despair.
Isabel Pérez Montalbán is a contemporary Spanish poet, author of fifteen collections of verse, and the recipient of multiple literary awards including the Premio Internacional de Poesía (2019). Born in Córdoba in 1964, Pérez Montalbán was raised in extreme poverty and suffered a difficult childhood and adolescence. When she was just three years old, her mother died by suicide, her alcoholic father abandoned his six children, and they spent years separated in many abusive foster homes. Four of her five siblings eventually succumbed to mental illnesses. She is the founder of a subgenre of Spanish poetry known as “Poetry of Conscience” and has made it her mission to address universal themes like poverty, injustice, inequity, and exploitation.
Elena Barcia is a film and literary translator born and raised in Los Angeles. During her career in the film industry, she translated hundreds of movies, from Hamlet to Harry Potter, and collaborated with directors like Martin Scorsese, Guillermo del Toro, Alfonso Cuarón, and Alejandro Iñárritu on the subtitle translations of their films. Her translation of Miguel de Unamuno’s classic novel Niebla (Fog) was published by Northwestern University Press in 2017. Her poetry translations have appeared in Asymptote, Poetry International, Exchanges: A Journal of Translation, and The Harvard Review. In both 2021 and 2023 she was shortlisted for Poetry International’s Summer Chapbook Competition, and her translation of Chilean poet Malú Urriola’s book Cadáver exquisito (Cuarto Propio, 2017) was published by Valparaíso Editions USA in 2023 as Exquisite Corpse.
