GUITAR
Translated By Aaron Coleman
They went out hunting for guitars,
underneath the full moon.
And they brought back her:
pale, fine, lithe,
ceaseless mulata eyes,
a waist of open wood.
She’s young, just barely flies.
But already she sings
when she hears, in other cages,
the flittering wings of sones and coplas.
His sombersones and her lonelycoplas.
On her cage is this inscription:
“Caution: she dreams.”
Translated from the Spanish
Notes:
This poem is part of the portfolio “Nicolás Guillén: Maker and Breaker of Forms.” You can read the rest of the portfolio in the September 2024 issue. The poems in this folio come from The Great Zoo by Nicolás Guillén, translated by Aaron Coleman (University of Chicago Press, 2024). El Gran Zoo © 2023 by Nicolás Guillén, first published in 1967. Translation © 2024 by Aaron Coleman. Reprinted by permission of the University of Chicago Press and the Estate of Nicolás Guillén. All rights reserved.
Source: Poetry (September 2024)