The Desert of Atacama VI

By Raúl Zurita
Translated By Anna Deeny Morales
Arid plains do not dream
             No one has ever managed to see
             Those chimerical pampas





i.   The landscapes are convergent and divergent in the
    Desert of Atacama

ii.  Over the convergent and divergent landscape Chile
     is convergent and divergent in the Desert of Atacama

iii.  That's why what's there never was there and if it
     were to stay where it is it would see its own life turn
     around until being the chimerical plains   deserted
     enlightened   fading away like them

iv.  And when the convergent and divergent landscapes
     of the Desert of Atacama unfold themselves
     all of Chile will have been the life beyond   because
     unlike Atacama they are already extending themselves
     like a dream the deserts of our own chimera
     over there in these plains of hell

Copyright Credit: Republished with permission of University of California Press,  “The Desert of Atacama VI” from Purgatory by Raúl Zurita. Copyright © 2009 by Raúl Zurita. Permission conveyed through Copyright Clearance Center, Inc. 
Source: Purgatory (University of California Press, 2009)