Tres Poemas

Manuel Rivas

Secretos

I

Sol de chorima,
ten días o inverno
de louco. Amén.

II

Esa maleta
nunca foi baleira.
Secreta fala.

III

Días da soidade
alindan gando bravo.
Coser as sombras.

IV

Non é tan lonxe
nin pasou tanto tempo.
Todo foi hoxe.

V

No paraíso
caeron anxos do ceo.
Sempre retellar.



O vagalume

Na lingua de Galicia,
o ser máis nomeado é o vagalume.
Deusa miúda, lucerna.
Deus verme, lucecú.
Contando polo baixo,
cen nomes ten o vagalume.
Mesmo ganou un concurso
de palabras fermosas,
xunto a bolboreta,
e a costureira reirrei,
esa a quen preguntas:
Cantos anos vivirei?
Cen nomes ten o vagalume,
mais el xa non existe.
Só fica un rumor de luz no país invisíbel.
Ese crime,
a fábrica do non ser,
non é noticia.
Cen nomes ten o vagalume,
cen sartegos na cripta
dun dicionario.



O xiz no cadro negro

Porque hai fronteira
e ti estás do outro lado,
habitando a etimoloxía de expulsado,
a parroquia do deus Terminus,
na beira exacta do desterro,
es un fracaso como defunto,
don Antonio Machado,
imperfecto cadáver,
os brazos cruzados na matriz da morte,
mestre parindo un neno exiliado,
camiño da escola,
refuxiado na caligrafía do xiz,
ese chío da andoriña no cadro negro,
o acento da verdade
abraiada,
a derrota invencíbel
no trazo dun animal honesto,
ese ourizo da man
que ulisca os restos
da historia de España
nun bodegón
onde pendura dun gancho de caza
a lúa demudada.

Read the English translation

Listen to the original read by the poet:

For Manuel Rivas, words are the most sensitive of creatures. In the same way that frogs or glow-worms are the first to manifest signs of pollution in the natural environment, words suffer as a result of corruption in the socio-political sphere. In his work as journalist, writer of fiction, poetry or essays, he is consistent in his role as custodian of all sensitive creatures; his writings document historical damage and alert us to potential future harm to our natural, linguistic and political eco-systems. The poems translated here challenge the reader to observe the world more closely, because it is precisely the things that are not immediately visible or audible that matter most in these disturbing times of endangered species, languages and histories.

Manuel Rivas (b. 1957, A Coruña) is a poet, fiction writer, screenwriter, and journalist. His poetry has been collected in the volumes O pobo da noite (1997) and Do descoñecido ao descoñecido (From Unknown to Unknown, Small Stations Press, 2009). For his fiction, he has received the Spanish Critics' Prize for Un millón de vacas (One Million Cows, Small Stations Press, 2015), the Galician Critics' Prize for En salvaxe compaña (In the Wilderness, Harvill Press, 2003; Overlook Press, 2006), the National Literature Prize for Narrative for Que me queres, amor? (Vermeer’s Milkmaid and Other Stories, Harvill Press, 2002; Overlook Press, 2008), the Spanish Critics' Prize for O lapis de carpinteiro (The Carpenter’s Pencil, Harvill Press, 2001; Overlook Press, 2001), and the National Critics’ Prize in Galician for Os libros arden mal (Books Burn Badly, Harvill Secker, 2010), which was also named Book of the Year by booksellers in Madrid. His most recent books are the story collection O máis estraño (2011), the novel El último día de Terranova (2015), the poetry collection A boca da terra (2015), and the essay Contra todo isto (2018). He is the codirector of Luzes, a monthly magazine dedicated to new journalism, freedoms, and culture. Find his author's page at Penguin Random House here.

Lorna Shaughnessy has published three poetry collections, Torching the Brown River (Salmon Poetry, 2008), Witness Trees (Salmon Poetry, 2011), and Anchored (Salmon Poetry, 2015), and a chapbook, Song of the Forgotten Shulamite (Lapwing Publications, 2005). Lark Water, her fourth collection, will be launched in 2020. She lectures in Hispanic studies in National University of Ireland, Galway and translates Galician, Spanish, and Latin American poetry, including two collections by Manuel Rivas, The Disappearance of Snow (Shearsman Books, 2012) and The Mouth of the Earth (Shearsman Books, 2019). In 2018, she was awarded the Artist’s Bursary by the Arts Council of Ireland. She is the coordinator of Crosswinds: Irish and Galician Poetry and Translation, a collaboration between poets, translators, and academics in Galicia and Ireland. For more information, go here.