I laugh,
I smile
at the old poets,
I cherish all
their poetry,
all their dew,
moon, diamond, droplets
from submerged silver
that my graybeard brothers
festoon onto roses,
but
I smile;
for they always say “I,”
every where they go
something occurs
and it is always “I,”
down these streets,
only they
or their beloved,
walk down these streets,
no one else,
there are no fishermen about,
no bookstore merchants,
no bricklayers walking about,
no one stumbles and falls
from their scaffolding,
not one person suffers,
not one person loves,
only my poor brother,
the poet,
everything is happen
to him
and to his beloved,
no one lives
but him, the solitary poet,
no one weeps from hunger
or anger,
not one person suffers
in all his poetry
because he was unable
to pay the rent,
not one person
in all his poetry
is evicted from his house
with everything he owns,
and in factories,
nothing happens, no,
all our umbrellas, cups and bowls, are forged
bombs, guns and trains are built,
the elements are mined
by scraping up hell,
there is a worker’s strike,
military police arrive
and open fire,
they fire upon the people,
which is also to say,
against poetry,
ai, but my brother,
the poet,
was in love,
or he was agonizing
for in his throbbing heart
is only the sea,
and distant ports of call
yes, he loves their names,
and he writes about the ocean
the one he has never seen,
when life is as full
as the grain from an ear of corn
he walks by, never wondering
once how to harvest corn,
and he rides upon waves
without ever touching the shore,
and, now and then,
he is moved, perhaps profoundly
and deeply, but with despair,
you see, he is too sublime
to fit inside his own skin,
he gets himself ensnared, unscrambled,
he declares that he must be accursed,
with great sighs he drags about the cross
of darkness,
he knows that he is at odds with
everyone else in the world,
still, he eats bread every
morning but he has never
seen a baker
never attended union
meeting of bakers,
and so, my poor brother,
he becomes intentionally tricky,
he twists his words and writhes
and finds himself
and his words
complex,
complex,
ai, that’s the word,
I am no better
than my brother,
but I smile,
because when I walk down the street
I am the only one who does not exist,
all of life floods about me
like tidal rivers,
but I am the only
one who is now invisible,
I have no cryptic shadows,
no melancholia, nothing is dark,
you see, people speak to me,
people want to tell me things,
to talk about their families,
all their grief, all their gaiety,
people pass by, and people
talk to me about things,
look at all the things they do!
They chop wood,
string up electrical lights,
they bake bread late into the night,
our morning bread,
with pick ax and irons
they pierce the entrails
of the earth
and convert the minerals
into locks,
they rise into the sky and
carry airmail and sobs and kisses,
someone is standing
in every single doorway,
someone is being born,
my beloved is waiting for me,
and, as I walk along, these things
call out for me to sing them,
but how can I? I haven’t time,
I must examine everything
I hurry home now,
hurry off to the Party office;
what else can I do?
People everywhere ask me
to sing for them, yes, sing forever,
until everyone is drowned
in dreams and in colors,
ai, life is a gift
flooded with songs, the gift flies
open and a flock
of wild birds fly out
and they all want to tell me things,
they perch on my shoulders,
life is a struggle,
just like a rolling river and
all of humanity
wants to tell me,
to tell you,
why they are struggling,
and, if they are to be executed,
why they will die,
and I pass them all and haven’t
time enough for so many lives,
I want
them all to live
inside my soul,
to sing out my song,
I am not important,
I have no free time
for my own passions,
all night and all day
I must write this down
what is occurring, please
let me try not to miss anything.
It is true that, extraordinarily,
at times I do get tired,
I look up at the cosmos,
I lie down in the grass, a bug
the same color as a violin
marches by,
I place my palm across
a sapling breast
or between the hips
of the woman I love,
I try to study the silk
of the trembling night,
all frozen with destiny,
then
I feel waves of mystery
pouring out from my soul,
ai, childhood, my little self
weeping in a corner,
my heartbreaking youth,
I feel so sleepy
so I sleep
just like a log,
in no time I am
unconscious,
with or without destiny,
with or without my lover,
and when I wake up
all the night is long gone,
all the streets have come alive without me,
the poor barrio girls
are off on their way to work,
fishermen return
from the sea,
the miners
in brand new boots
are going down into the mines,
yes, everything is alive, awake,
yes, everyone is
hurrying back and forth,
and I have scarcely enough time
to struggle into my clothing,
I must fly:
no on must
pass by without my seeing
where he is going,
what she is doing.
I cannot live without
life,
without people being people,
I must run and look and listen
and sing,
stars have nothing
for me, solitude
bears not a single flower,
not a single fruit.
For my life, give me
every life,
give me every agony
the world has ever had
and I will transform them all
into desire.
Give me
every rapture,
even the most secret,
because if not,
how will they ever be known?
I must tell them,
please, give me your
daily struggles
so I can make up my song,
that way we will be together,
shoulder to shoulder,
everyone single one,
let my song unite us:
this song of the invisible man
singing along with everyone.

—- translated by ZJC

][][

el hombre invisible

Yo me río,
me sonrío
de los viejos poetas,
yo adoro toda
la poesía escrita,
todo el rocío,
luna, diamante, gota
de plata sumergida,
que fue mi antiguo hermano,
agregando a la rosa, pero
me sonrío,
siempre dicen “yo,”
a cada paso
les sucede algo,
es siempre “yo,”
por las calles
sólo ellos andan
o la dulce que aman,
nadie más,
no pasan pescadores,
ni libreros,
no pasan albañiles,
nadie se cae
de un andamio,
nadie sufre,
nadie ama,
sólo mi pobre hermano,
el poeta,
a él le pasan
todas las cosas
y a su dulce querida,
nadie vive
sino él solo,
nadie llora de hambre
o de ira,
nadie sufre em sus versos
porque no puede
pagar el alquiler,
a nadie en poesía
echan a la calle
con camas y con sillas
y en las fábricas
tampoco pasa nada,
no pasa nada,
se hacen paraguas, copas,
armas, locomotoras,
se extraen minerales
rascando el infierno,
hay huelgas,
vienen soldados,
disparan,
disparan contra el pueblo,
es decir,
contra la poesía,
y mi hermano
el poeta
estaba enamorado,
o sufría
porque sus sentimientos
son marinos,
ama los puertos
remotos, por sus nombres,
y escribe sobre océanos
que no conoce,
junto a la vida, repleta
como el maíz de granos,
él pasa sin saber
desgranarla,
él sube y baja
sin tocar la tierra,
o a veces
se siente profundísimo
y tenebroso
él es tan grande
que no cabe en sí mismo,
se enreda y desenreda,
se declara maldito,
lleva con gran dificultad la cruz
de las tinieblas,
piensa que es diferente
a todo el mundo,
todos los días come pan
pero no ha visto nunca
un panadero
ni ha entrado a un sindicato
de panificadores,
y así mi pobre hermano
se hace oscuro,
se tuerce y se retuerce
y se halla
interesante,
interesante,
ésta es la palavra,
yo no soy superior
a mi hermano
pero sonrío,
porque voi por las calles
y sólo yo no existo,
la vida corre
como todos los ríos,
yo soy el único
invisible,
no hay misteriosas sombras,
no hay tinieblas,
todo el mundo me habla,
me quierem contar cosas,
me hablan de sus parientes,
de sus miserias
y de sus alegrías,
todos pasan y todos
me dicen algo,
y cuántas cosas hacen!
cortan maderas,
suben hilos eléctricos,
amasan hasta tarde en la noche
el pan de cada día,
con una lanza de hierro
perforan las entrañas
de la tierra
y converten el hierro
en cerraduras,
suben al cielo y llevan,
cartas, sollozos, besos,
en cada puerta
hay alguien,
nace alguno,
o me espera la que amo,
y yo paso y las cosas
mi piden que las cante,
yo no tengo tiempo,
debo pensar en todo,
debo volver a la casa,
pasar al Partido,
qué puedo hacer,
todo me pide
que hable,
todo me pide
que cante y cante siempre,
todo está lleno
de sueños y sonidos,
la vida es una caja
llena de cantos, se abre
y vuela y viene
una bandada
de pájaros
que quieren contarme algo
descansando en mis hombros,
la vida es una lucha
como un río que avanza
y los hombres
quieren decirme,
decirte,
por qué luchan,
si mueren,
por qué mueren,
y yo paso y no tengo
tiempo para tantas vidas,
yo quiero
que todos vivan
en mi vida
y cante en mi canto,
yo no tengo importancia,
no tengo tiempo,
para mis asuntos,
de noche y de día
debo anotar lo que pasa,
y no olvidar a nadie.
Es verdad que de pronto
me fatigo
y miro las estrellas,
me tiendo en el pasto, pasa
un insecto color de violín,
pongo el brazo
sobre un pequeño seno
o bajo la cintura
de la dulce que amo,
y miro el terciopelo duro
de la noche que tiembla
con sus constelaciones congeladas,
entonces
siento subir a mi alma
la ola de los misterios,
la infancia,
el llanto en los rincones,
la adolescencia triste,
y mi sueño,
y duermo
como un manzano,
me quedo dormido
de inmediato
con las estrellas o sin las estrellas,
com mi amor o sin ella,
y cuando me levanto
se fue la noche,
la calle ha despertado antes que yo,
a su trabajo
van las muchachas pobres,
los pescadors vuelven
del océano,
los mineros
van con zapatos nuevos
entrando en la mina,
todo vive,
todos pasan,
andan apresurados,
y yo tengo apenas tiempo
para vestirme,
yo tengo que correr:
ninguno puede
pasar sin que yo sepa
adónde va, qué cosa
le ha sucedido.
No puedo sin la vida vivir,
sin el hombre ser hombre
y corro y veo y oigo
y canto,
las estrellas no tienen
nada que ver conmigo,
la soledad no tiene
flor ni fruto.
Dadme para mi vida
todas las vidas,
dadme todo el dolor
de todo el mundo,
yo voy a transformarlo
en esperanza. Dadme
Todas las alegrías,
aun las más secretas,
porque si así no fuera,
cómo van a saberse?
Yo tengo que cantarlas,
dadme las luchas
de cada día
porque ellas son mi canto,
y así andaremos juntos,
codo a codo,
todos los hombres,
mi canto los reúne:
el canto del hombre invisible
que canta con todos los hombres.