Luis Alberto de Cuenca
Sick of Absence / Mal de ausencia
translated by Gustavo Pérez Format
Since you left, time has slowed in Madrid.
I’ve just finished watching a movie that ended
a century ago. You don’t know how reluctantly
the world turns without you, my love.
Friends tell me to get hold of myself,
that so much melancholy rots the heart,
that your absence isn’t worth all this worry,
that I’m acting like a character in a dime novel.
But you packed my peace in your suitcase,
and the phone lines, and the street where I live,
and then you sent a troop of environmentalists
to my house to loot my sorry, polluted soul.
Even worse, I can’t stop dreaming about giants
and you, naked, kissing their hands;
about gods on horseback ravaging Europe
and keeping you captive until I’m dead.
***
MAL DE AUSENCIA
Desde que tu te fuiste, no sabes que despacio pasa
el tiempo en Madrid. He visto una pelicula que ha
terminado apenas hace un siglo. No sabes que lento
corre el mundo sin ti, novia lejana.
Mis amigos me dicen que vuelva a ser el mismo,
que pudre el coraz6n tanta melancolfa, que tu
ausencia no vale tanta ansiedad inutil, que parezco
un ejemplo de subliteratura.
Pero cu te has llevado mi paz en tu maleta, los
hilos del telefono, la calle en la que vivo. Tu
has man dado a mi casa tropas ecologistas a
saquear mi alma contaminada y criste.
Y, para colmo, sigo sofi.ando con gigantes y
contigo, desnuda, besandoles las manos. Con
dioses a caballo que destruyen Europa y cautiva
te guardan hasta que yo este muerto.
***
A prolific and multifaceted writer and scholar, Luis Alberto de Cuenca possesses one of Spain’s most distinctive poetic voices. His poems, elegant and spiritual yet devious, explore the expressive resources of the conversational register by making use of a variety of materials: classical antiquity, comic books, cartoons, Hollywood movies, slang, urban culture. Perhaps more than any of his contemporaries, he has been a major influence on younger Spanish poets. In 2015 he received the National Poetry Prize for his book, Cuaderno de vacaciones. From 1996 to 2000 he was the Director of Spain’s national library.
Gustavo Pérez Firmat has published several books of poetry in Spanish and English, among them Sin lengua, deslenguado and Bilingual Blues. His books of cultural criticism include Life on the Hyphen and Tongue Ties. He teaches at Columbia University, where he is the David Feinson Professor in the Humanities.