Poem
Federico Díaz-Granados
THE METROPOL CAKE SHOP
I look at the reflection of my bodyin the shop window.
In the glass
I see myself fat, tired, floating over those vanilla cakes.
I think about the friends I haven’t seen again;
and what did they know about this faded heart
into which not a centimetre of the world fits?
And when you don’t recognise yourself in the steps of your son, nor in the mirror,
tired of eluding bad omens,
seeing from afar the splendour of losses,
the unfathomable and the unknown.
I shut up: my silence reaches this body I don’t understand,
I clear my heart of its last fire.
And I’m still a stranger in the glass,
fat and tired
and at my back
some shadows, gestures of dead grandfathers and uncles
floating over the vanilla cakes.
© Translation: 2008, Nicolás Suescún
PASTELERÍA METROPOL
PASTELERÍA METROPOL
Miro en la vitrinael reflejo de mi cuerpo
Sobre el vidrio
Y me veo gordo, cansado, sobre aquellos pasteles de vainilla.
Y pienso en los amigos que no volví a ver
¿y qué sabían ellos de este corazón caduco
donde no cabe ni un centímetro del mundo?
Y cuando no te reconoces en los pasos del hijo, ni en el espejo
harto de esquivar malos presagios
viendo de lejos el esplendor de las pérdidas
lo indescifrable y lo desconocido.
Callo: mi silencio alcanza ese cuerpo que no entiendo,
desmancho mi corazón de su último incendio.
Y sigo extranjero en es vidrio,
gordo y cansado
y atrás de mí
algunas sombras, gestos de abuelos y tíos muertos
sobre los pasteles de vainilla.
© 2006, Federico Díaz-Granados
From: Álbum de los adioses
Publisher: Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Colección “Libro por centavos”, Bogota
From: Álbum de los adioses
Publisher: Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Colección “Libro por centavos”, Bogota
Poems
Poems of Federico Díaz-Granados
Close
THE METROPOL CAKE SHOP
I look at the reflection of my bodyin the shop window.
In the glass
I see myself fat, tired, floating over those vanilla cakes.
I think about the friends I haven’t seen again;
and what did they know about this faded heart
into which not a centimetre of the world fits?
And when you don’t recognise yourself in the steps of your son, nor in the mirror,
tired of eluding bad omens,
seeing from afar the splendour of losses,
the unfathomable and the unknown.
I shut up: my silence reaches this body I don’t understand,
I clear my heart of its last fire.
And I’m still a stranger in the glass,
fat and tired
and at my back
some shadows, gestures of dead grandfathers and uncles
floating over the vanilla cakes.
© 2008, Nicolás Suescún
From: Álbum de los adioses
From: Álbum de los adioses
THE METROPOL CAKE SHOP
I look at the reflection of my bodyin the shop window.
In the glass
I see myself fat, tired, floating over those vanilla cakes.
I think about the friends I haven’t seen again;
and what did they know about this faded heart
into which not a centimetre of the world fits?
And when you don’t recognise yourself in the steps of your son, nor in the mirror,
tired of eluding bad omens,
seeing from afar the splendour of losses,
the unfathomable and the unknown.
I shut up: my silence reaches this body I don’t understand,
I clear my heart of its last fire.
And I’m still a stranger in the glass,
fat and tired
and at my back
some shadows, gestures of dead grandfathers and uncles
floating over the vanilla cakes.
© 2008, Nicolás Suescún
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