A Childhood Memory, Translation of Carlos Bousono's Poem: Recuerdo De Infancia

A Childhood Memory, Translation of Carlos Bousono’s poem : Recuerdo de infancia (Note : Poem inspired by the figure of Bousono’s grand-aunt with whom he had had to live since childhood, after the death of his mother. Cf. Carlos Bousono. Poesia Antologia : 1945-1993. Madrid : Espasa Calpe, 1993. T. Wignesan) There was a child. A child who in your hands wanted to experience the music of sunrise, feel the soft lawn, the suave grass.* Out there, in the heights, lights stuck up high. Was I about to sound the rock of its mysterious and cautious blackness ? The world hushed as did also the sky. The sky hushed like a child would. Oh ! My childhood dream of a river lined with fronds, My cristal flight : made all the more necessary ; my constant tolerance faced with your mood changes before the grimness of your statuesque stance ! Silent, stilled woman alone during the day, woman without light, the woman of long shadows, dried-up wall unable to feel pain : sheer matter. A hard, embittered woman ! Further, as I watched you at other times walking about : Your enormous dress train in the sombre mansion while I continued to strike at my tenuous light. My girlish light, my suave and livid lights. Your quietude waxed furious, your parched country when crossing your path a child, even a child, always, always, like scum, the nausea… • cespedes © T. Wignesan – Paris, 2013