by Rosabetty Muñoz | Translated by Elena Barcia
There's a Remote Country
There’s a remote country at the bottom of every day.
It’s always the same
(even though we know it no longer exists).
A narrow alley with blackbirds flying above,
trees and more trees filled with dark feathers,
perhaps also a river,
or rather pools, before total drought.
The erosion of meaning.
This body did not know that it was leaving behind
its own world.
Once again the mountain range makes you cry
Once again the mountain range makes you cry.
You were only looking for matches,
but a downpour erupted
which swept away with its brilliant gems:
the Christmas window display,
the news of a neighbor’s death,
another friend gone missing.
You weep in front of the window
where you glimpse a foreign city.
The torrent falls into the gutters,
along the edges of the streets.
It flows towards an ocean
that is not yours.
Rosabetty Muñoz is a Chilean poet, author of eleven books, and the recipient of multiple awards. Muñoz considers herself part of Chile’s “ethnocultural movement,” composed of writers who foreground the distinctive cultures of the regions they inhabit−in her case, the island of Chiloé, off the southwestern coast of Chile. In her books, Muñoz uses the island’s history and culture to tackle universal themes like authoritarianism, gender inequality, globalization, and the ravages of climate change.
Elena Barcia is a film and literary translator born and raised in Los Angeles. She has translated hundreds of movies from Hamlet to Harry Potter, and collaborated with directors like Martin Scorsese, Alfonso Cuarón, and Alejandro Iñárritu on the subtitle translations of their films. Her translation of Miguel de Unamuno’s classic novel Niebla (Fog) was published by Northwestern University Press in 2017. Her poetry translations have appeared in The Harvard Review, Asymptote, and Exchanges, a Journal of Literary Translation. In both 2021 and 2022 she was a finalist for Poetry International’s Summer Chapbook competition, and her translation of Chilean poet Malú Urriola’s book Cadáver exquisito (Exquisite Corpse; Cuarto Propio, 2017) was published by Valparaíso Editions USA in June of 2023.