Vicente Huidobro - Translation

[Heriotza]

Hello everyone. I'm a native Spanish speaker and I live in The Caribbean. One of my favorite Latin American poet is Vicente Huidobro. His poetry is one of the greatest, and lest known, monuments of the Spanish language. I was looking for translations into English of my favorite poem by him. I found some, but none of them convinced me. So, with my love for Huidobro and Poetry and my knowledge of English (a little), I tried to translate the creativity of this poem into your language. If anybody here knows Spanish and can help me to improve my translation, I would be very grateful. Translating Huidobro is very interesting because he thought that Poetry, at least what it is really poetry in a poem, can be translated. In fact, he wrote many of his early poems in Frances in order to prove this theory. Enjoy


LA POESÍA ES UN ATENTADO CELESTE

Yo estoy ausente pero en el fondo de esta ausencia
Hay la espera de mí mismo
Y esta espera es otro modo de presencia
La espera de mi retorno
Yo estoy en otros objetos
Ando en viaje dando un poco de mi vida
A ciertos árboles y a ciertas piedras
Que me han esperado muchos años

Se cansaron de esperarme y se sentaron

Yo no estoy y estoy
Estoy ausente y estoy presente en estado de espera
Ellos querrían mi lenguaje para expresarse
Y yo querría el de ellos para expresarlos
He aquí el equívoco el atroz equívoco

Angustioso lamentable
Me voy adentrando en estas plantas
Voy dejando mis ropas
Se me van cayendo las carnes
Y mi esqueleto se va revistiendo de cortezas
Me estoy haciendo árbol Cuántas cosas me he ido convirtiendo en otras cosas...

Es doloroso y lleno de ternura

Podría dar un grito pero se espantaría la transubstanciación
Hay que guardar silencio Esperar en silencio

-
POETRY IS A HEAVENLY ATTACK

I am absent but in the depth of this absence
There is the wait of myself
And this wait is another way of presence
The wait of my return
I am on another objects
I am journeying on my way giving a little of my life
to certain trees and certain stones
that have been waiting for me many years

They got tired of waiting for me and sat down

I am here and I am not
I am absent and I present in state of waiting
They wanted my language to express themselves
I wanted theirs to express them
Behold the misunderstanding, the atrocious misunderstanding

Distressing, regrettable
I am moving inwards to these plants
I am stepping out my clothes
My flesh is falling down from me
And my skeleton is covering with bark
I am becoming a tree How many times I have been turning into other things...

It is painful and full of tenderness

I could cry out but the transubstantiation would scare away
It's needed remain in silence Wait in silence

[CarpeNixta]

I'm also a Spanish speaker and I liked this poem very much, thank you for sharing it.

POETRY IS A HEAVENLY ATTACK

I am absent but in the depth of this absence
There is the wait of myself
And this wait is another way of presence
The wait of my return
I am in other objects
I am traveling giving a little of my life
to certain trees and certain stones
that have been waiting for me many years

They got tired of waiting and sat down

I am here and I am not
I am absent and I present in state of waiting
They wanted my language to express themselves
And I wanted theirs to express them
Here is the mistake the atrocious wrong

Distressing, regrettable
I am moving inwards to these plants
I am stepping out my clothes
My flesh is falling down from me
And my skeleton is covering with bark
I am becoming a tree How many times I have been turning into other things...

It is painful and full of tenderness

I could cry out but the transubstantiation would scare away
It's needed remain in silence Wait in silence


Spanish...
Me estoy haciendo árbol Cuántas cosas me he ido convirtiendo en otras cosas...
English...
I am becoming a tree How many times I have been turning into other things...

In here it says cuantas cosas or cuantas veces, because cuantas cosas would be something like How many things and cuantas veces like How Many times so I got a little confused to write How many things I've been turning into other things...