Poem
Juan Manuel Roca
NO MAN’S LAND
No OnePaints a bird where once a tiger was.
Its roar wipes out the whistling. He sketches a tree
Where in bygone years he painted a mast.
Who will say that under tree and bird
A tiger sleeps
While a boat in full sail passes by.
This cloud
Was sheet in its rigging,
The chair rests against something that was a wall,
A blue horseman was the sky.
No One loves chiaroscuro,
The colours of forgetting,
The painters of fogs.
Rembrandt and Morandi
Asked after No One.
© Translation: 2008, Julie Wark
TIERRA DE NADIE
TIERRA DE NADIE
NadiePinta un pájaro donde hubo tigre.
Su rugido borra el silbo. Traza un árbol
Donde antaño pintó un mástil.
Quién dirá que bajo árbol y pájaro
Duerme un tigre
Mientras cruza un barco a toda vela.
Esta nube
Fue sábana en su encordado,
La silla se reclina en algo que fue pared,
El cielo fue jinete azul.
Nadie ama el claroscuro,
Los colores del olvido,
Los pintores de nieblas.
Rembrandt y Morandi
Preguntaron por Nadie.
© 2005, Juan Manuel Roca
From: Las Hipotesis de Nadie
Publisher: Colección de poesía Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Bogotá
This poem is published here because it was specially selected by Juan Manuel Roca to be read at the Poetry International Festival Rotterdam 2008.
From: Las Hipotesis de Nadie
Publisher: Colección de poesía Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Bogotá
Poems
Poems of Juan Manuel Roca
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NO MAN’S LAND
No OnePaints a bird where once a tiger was.
Its roar wipes out the whistling. He sketches a tree
Where in bygone years he painted a mast.
Who will say that under tree and bird
A tiger sleeps
While a boat in full sail passes by.
This cloud
Was sheet in its rigging,
The chair rests against something that was a wall,
A blue horseman was the sky.
No One loves chiaroscuro,
The colours of forgetting,
The painters of fogs.
Rembrandt and Morandi
Asked after No One.
© 2008, Julie Wark
From: Las Hipotesis de Nadie
This poem is published here because it was specially selected by Juan Manuel Roca to be read at the Poetry International Festival Rotterdam 2008.
From: Las Hipotesis de Nadie
NO MAN’S LAND
No OnePaints a bird where once a tiger was.
Its roar wipes out the whistling. He sketches a tree
Where in bygone years he painted a mast.
Who will say that under tree and bird
A tiger sleeps
While a boat in full sail passes by.
This cloud
Was sheet in its rigging,
The chair rests against something that was a wall,
A blue horseman was the sky.
No One loves chiaroscuro,
The colours of forgetting,
The painters of fogs.
Rembrandt and Morandi
Asked after No One.
© 2008, Julie Wark
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