Embedded Files
Poems by Sandra Santana, with translations by Forrest Gander
desde Es el verbo tan frágil
Los viajes nunca lograron trasportarle. Los automóviles le dejaban siempre en la puerta de casa; todos los trenes, sin excepción, se detenían una estación antes de lo desconocido. Tras cada despegue imaginaba, inmediatamente, una pantalla adherida a la ventanilla del avión con un programa continuo de nubes y paisajes diminutos.
from Such a Fragile Verb
Travel never managed to transport her. Cars always dropped her off at her front door; every train, without exception, stopped one station short of the unknown. After each takeoff, she immediately imagined a screen affixed to the airplane window showing a continuous program of clouds and tiny landscapes.
***
SE DETIENE FRENTE A LA INDICACIÓN DE “SENTIDO UNICO” Y NO PUEDE DESPRENDERSE DE LA EXTRAÑA IDEA DE QUE ALLÍ MISMO RESIDE ALGUNA IMPORTANTE CONSIDERACIÓN SOBRE LA NATURALEZA DEL TIEMPO QUE ELLA MISMA NO ALCANZA A COMPRENDER
Contempla al avanzar la imposibilidad de comenzar
en el mismo punto de partida:
el corazón del hombre sigue latiendo marcha atrás.
SHE STOPS IN FRONT OF THE “ONE-WAY” SIGN AND CAN’T SHAKE THE STRANGE IDEA THAT THERE’S SOME IMPORTANT CONSIDERATION ABOUT THE NATURE OF TIME SHE DOESN’T GET
As she moves forward, she contemplates the impossibility of starting
from the same starting point:
the human heart keeps beating backwards.
***
IMAGINARIA METAMORFOSIS DE LA ROSA EN MÁQUINA DE GUERRA
La luz desaparece y el trueno,
que otras veces nos había derribado,
surge de la cabina del discjockey:
Como el mar, como el mar si los vientos, como el mar…
Bailemos ignorando las miradas
y si algún pensamiento inoportuno
—¿Quién dijo que este ritmo no es todo lo que existe?—
nos acosa como una grieta alucinante
entre el humo y las luces
volviendo y golpeando, como el mar
buscaré, impaciente, esa sonrisa
que cómplice me atrape
en el rostro de la verdadera diversión.
IMAGINARY METAMORPHOSIS OF THE ROSE INTO A WAR MACHINE
The light disappears and the thunder,
which had once struck us down,
rises from the DJ booth:
Like the sea, like the sea if the winds, like the sea...
Let's dance, ignoring the glances,
and if some inopportune thought
—Who said this rhythm isn't all there is?—
haunts us like a hallucinatory crack
between the smoke and the lights
returning and pounding, like the sea
I’ll search, impatiently, for a smile—
making my face its accomplice—
of sheer pleasure.
***
JUGUETE PARA HACER POMPAS DE JABÓN
A Beatrice Barral
El papel, bien mirado, podría ser la luna. CIRUELAS SIN HUESO. La luna, bien mirada (es decir, bajo los efectos benéficos del olor a barniz), podría ser el papel idóneo donde dibujar una figura redonda y blanca. —Un primer trazo: ROJO IRLANDA—. Visto así, los aviones que cruzan el cielo en el horizonte de la mirada pueden causar desgarros irreparables. Visto así, el desgarro mudo e irreparable del dolor puede muy bien confundirse con las líneas que cortan el papel dejándonos ilesos.
TOY FOR MAKING SOAP BUBBLES
for Beatrice Barral
The paper, considered closely, could be the moon. UNPITTED PLUMS. The moon, considered closely (that is, under the propitious effects of the scent of varnish), could be the ideal paper on which to draw a round, white figure. —A first stroke: IRISH RED—. Seen this way, planes crossing the sky along the horizon of our gaze might cause irreparable gashes. Seen this way, pain’s silent and irreparable gashes might well be taken for these lines that, drawn across the paper, leave us unscathed.
Sandra Santana is the author of four collection of poems. Her poems have been translated into various languages (including English, French, Russian, German, Portuguese, Dutch, Romanian, Armenian, and Chinese) and have appeared in magazines and anthologies including Forrest Gander’s Panic Cure: Poetry from Spain for the 21st Century (Shearsman, 2013). She is also the author of the critical volume El laberinto de la palabra: Karl Kraus en la Viena de fin de siglo (Acantilado, 2011), for which she received the City of Barcelona Essay Prize, and the collection of articles about the use of writing in contemporary art La escritura por venir. Ensayos sobre arte y literature en los siglos XX y XXI. Her translations include books by Karl Kraus, Peter Handke, Ernst Jandl, Natalia Azarova and Friederike Mayröcker. She currently teaches Aesthetics and Theory of Art at the University of La Laguna on Tenerife.
The author of twenty books of his own and as many translations, Forrest Gander was born in the Mojave Desert. He has degrees in geology and literature. Awarded the Pulitzer Prize and the Best Translated Book Award, Gander has been a signal voice for environmental poetics. His latest books are a book length poem, Mojave Ghost, and his translation, Even Time Bleeds: Selected Poems of Jeannette L. Clariond.
Copyright © 2026 by Sandra Santana and Forrest Gander, all rights reserved. This text may be used and shared in accordance with the fair-use provisions of Copyright law. Archiving, redistribution, or republication of this text on other terms, in any medium, requires the notification of the journal and consent of the author.
Report abuse