from Mere Diary
By Mercedes Roffé
Translated by Lucina Schell
August 20
RURAL JOURNEY
the cry
in those women
is even more silence
October 22
GRAY SPRING
Admit that you’ve embroidered it
hurriedly
with gigantic stitches
like you were being chased
like the Brontë sisters
is that why
the house behind?
000000000000always the house
000000000000bursting in
000000000000–urging,
000000000000pestering you?
so delicate the trees
a light wind bends them
so ominous and unerring
the birds’ flight
November 15
THE AVENUE
if there are trees like leaves
if there are people
like exclamation points
there must also be, surely
worlds
like radiant ochre
girly
avenues
skies
like golden bulging
transparent cumuli
galaxies, cosmos, ethers
like black carriages
December 17
COLOR-WRITING, 3
by contrast here there is study
a time
to meditate and measure
the consequences
a reddened circle or
sort of
and another circle inside
and inside it another one
and another
only that static, eccentric needle
alerts us
as if wanting
to give the illusion
of a new order
more labile
more perfect
20 de agosto
CAMINO RURAL
en ellas
el grito
es aun más silencio
22 de octubre
PRIMAVERA GRIS
Confiesa que lo has bordado
muy de prisa
a gigantescas puntadas
como si te corrieran
como las Brontë
¿por eso
la casa atrás?
¿siempre irrumpiendo
la casa
—urgiéndote,
asediando?
tan frágiles los árboles
que un viento leve los vence
tan ominoso y certero
el vuelo de las aves
15 de noviembre
LA AVENIDA
si hay árboles como hojas
si hay gente
como signos de admiración
también ha de haber, seguramente
mundos
como avenidas radiantes
ocres
niñas
cielos
como dorados cúmulos preñados
transparentes
galaxias, cosmos, éteres
como negros carruajes
17 de diciembre
COLOR-WRITING, 3
en cambio aquí hay estudio
un tiempo
de meditar y medir
las consecuencias
un círculo arrebolado o
casi
y otro círculo dentro
y otro adentro
y otro
solo esa aguja fija, excéntrica
nos alerta
como queriendo
dar la ilusión
de un nuevo orden
más lábil
más perfecto
From Diario ínfimo (Ediciones de La Isla de Siltolá, 2017)
NOTES
Rural Journey / Camino rural is based on a work by Marianne von Werefkin; Gray Spring / Primavera gris and The Avenue / La avenida were inspired by works with the same title by Alice Bailly; Color-Writing, 3 is based on a work by Olga Rozanova. Different versions of these poems were published alongside the artworks that inspired them in an anthology of Roffé’s ekphrastic poetry titled The Radiance of Things (Shearsman Books, 2022), which is available as a free e-book for download here: https://www.shearsman.com/poetry-books-e-books. The poems in these versions belong to Diario ínfimo (La Isla de Siltolá Ediciones, 2016), for which we are seeking an English-language publisher.
Photo Credit: Rocío Amorós
Mercedes Roffé is one of Argentina’s most internationally recognized contemporary poets. Her books have been widely published in the Spanish-speaking world and, in translation, in Italy, France, UK, Quebec (Canada), Brazil, Romania, Lebanon, and the United States. Among other distinctions, she was awarded a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship in poetry (2001), and a Civitella Ranieri Foundation Center residency fellowship (2012). In 2021 she received the Casa Bukowski International Poetry Prize for her trajectory. Roffé lives in New York City and is the founding director of Ediciones Pen Press (www.edicionespenpress.com).
Photo Credit: Rafael Calderon
Lucina Schell is the international rights manager at the University of Chicago Press, and a member of the Third Coast Translators Collective. She translates primarily poetry from Spanish. Published translations include Daiana Henderson’s So That Something Remains Lit (Cardboard House Press, 2018) and Vision of the Children of Evil by Miguel Ángel Bustos (co•im•press, 2018), as well as selections from authors including Erika Martínez, Graciela Cros, Ada Salas, and María Ángeles Pérez López.
Poesía en acción is an Action Books blog feature for Latin American and Spanish poetry in translation and the translator micro-interview series. It was created by Katherine M. Hedeen and is currently curated and edited by Olivia Lott with web editing by Paul Cunningham.