Poem
Juan Manuel Roca
Wrapped in Nothing
A priest slapped my face in the schoolyard because I wasn’t singing a hymn, and my cheek, after 40 years, is barely returned from that slap.I saw in the turn of the cheek to the left the country that might have been, and in the turn to the right the burial of a dream.
Coming back from the slap, the house is growing loose like a borrowed coat. Needless to say I still haven’t sung the hymn and the hand of the priest to which I never gave the other cheek is wrapped in nothing.
© Translation: 2008, Julie Wark
ENVUELTO EN LA NADA
ENVUELTO EN LA NADA
Un cura me abofeteó en el patio del colegio porque no cantaba un himno, y mi mejilla, luego de 40 años, apenas regresa de aquella bofetada.Vi en el giro de la mejilla hacia la izquierda el país que pudo ser, y en el giro a la derecha el encierro del sueño.
De regreso de la bofetada, ha empezado a holgar la casa como un sacón prestado. Sobra decir que sigo sin cantar el himno y la mano del cura al que nunca puse la otra mejilla está envuelta en la nada.
© 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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Wrapped in Nothing
A priest slapped my face in the schoolyard because I wasn’t singing a hymn, and my cheek, after 40 years, is barely returned from that slap.I saw in the turn of the cheek to the left the country that might have been, and in the turn to the right the burial of a dream.
Coming back from the slap, the house is growing loose like a borrowed coat. Needless to say I still haven’t sung the hymn and the hand of the priest to which I never gave the other cheek is wrapped in nothing.
© 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
Wrapped in Nothing
A priest slapped my face in the schoolyard because I wasn’t singing a hymn, and my cheek, after 40 years, is barely returned from that slap.I saw in the turn of the cheek to the left the country that might have been, and in the turn to the right the burial of a dream.
Coming back from the slap, the house is growing loose like a borrowed coat. Needless to say I still haven’t sung the hymn and the hand of the priest to which I never gave the other cheek is wrapped in nothing.
© 2008, Julie Wark
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