Poetry,  Translation

“Of Trips, Of Fires,” by Edgar Rincón Luna, Translated by Toshiya Kamei

Of Trips, Of Fires
“Only strangers travel owning everything
I have nowhere to go”
Leonard Cohen

I drink a cup of coffee

you drink a cup of fire
behind our eyelids
two tears hit like rain
old photos go through the dust
a cemetery of ashes
a patio filled with our old cadavers

have we really built this wasteland for us?
is the tattoo of sand on the skin ours?
only strangers travel owning everything
and we have nowhere to go

the fire spreads to each question
it’s the doubt that approaches us, you say
while we stop to gaze at the fire
we drink calmly
without answers

***

De viajes, de incendios

“Only strangers travel owning everything
I have nowhere to go”
Leonard Cohen

Tomo una taza de café

tomas una taza de fuego
tras nuestros párpados
dos lágrimas golpean como lluvia
pasan viejas fotografías entre el polvo
un cementerio de cenizas
un patio habitado por antiguos cadáveres nuestros

¿realmente hemos construido este páramo para nosotros?
¿nos pertenece acaso el tatuaje de arena en la piel?
solamente los extraños viajan poseyéndolo todo
y nosotros no tenemos a donde ir

el fuego se extiende a cada pregunta
es la duda lo que nos acerca dices
mientras nos detenemos a contemplar el incendio
bebemos tranquilamente
y sin respuestas

*

Edgar Rincón Luna was born in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico in 1974. He is the author of Aquí comienza la noche interminable (2000), Puño de whiskey (2005), and Trenes para demoler un río (2015).

 

Toshiya Kamei holds an MFA in Literary Translation from the University of Arkansas. His translations of Latin American literature include books by Claudia Apablaza, Carlos Bortoni, and Selfa Chew.
© LIT Magazine Issue #33, 2019