4 Translated Ángelo Néstore Poems

By and | 1 November 2018


Image courtesy of Diputación de Málaga

If My Father Tells Me

If my father tells me: Be a man,
I shrivel like a grub,
stick my belly on the fishhook.
Soft, like some mollusk without its shell,
I feel dismantled, keep my cool.
I then ask myself
what use was learning four languages
if words can’t be heard beneath the water,
if I only know how to write poems.


Si mi padre me dice

Si mi padre me dice: Sé un hombre
yo me encojo como una larva,
clavo el abdomen bajo el anzuelo.
Blando, como un molusco sin concha,
me siento desmantelado, aguanto el tipo.
Me pregunto entonces
de qué sirve haber aprendido cuatro idiomas
si las palabras no se oyen bajo el agua,
si solo sé escribir poemas.

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