by Nicanor Parra | translated by Mariela Griffor
Your attention, ladies and gentleman, your attention for one second:
Turn your heads for a moment to this part of the republic.
Forget for one night your personal affairs,
Let pleasure and pain wait at the door:
Hear the voice from this part of the republic.
Your attention, ladies and gentlemen! Your attention for one second!
A soul that has been bottled up for years
In a sort of sexual and intellectual hole,
Feeding itself most inadequately through the nose,
Yearns to be heard.
I’d like to figure out a few things,
I need a little light, the garden’s swarming with flies,
My mind’s a disaster,
I work things out in my own peculiar way,
As I say these words I see a bicycle leaning against a wall,
I see a bridge
And the official car disappearing between buildings.
You part your hair, that’s true, you walk in the public parks,
Under your skins you have other skins,
You have a seventh sense
Which lets you in and out automatically.
But I’m a child calling for its mother from behind rocks,
I’m a pilgrim who makes stones jump high as his nose,
A tree crying out to be smothered in leaves.
Nicanor Parra (1914–2018) was a groundbreaking Chilean poet celebrated for his creation of “anti-poetry,” a form that challenged traditional poetic conventions with its colloquial and ironic style. Born in San Fabián de Alico, Chile, Parra’s influential works, including Poemas y antipoemas (1954) and Hojas de vida (1961), showcased his innovative approach to language and social critique. His contributions extended beyond poetry; he also taught mathematics and physics at the University of Chile. Parra’s impact on contemporary poetry was profound, earning him widespread recognition, including Chile’s National Prize for Literature.
Mariela Griffor (born September 29, 1961, in Concepcion, Chile), is a poet, editor, publisher of Marick Press and diplomat. She is author of four poetry collections, Exiliana, House, The Psychiatrist and most recently, Declassified (Eyewear Publishing, 2016), and has had her poems and translations published in many literary journals and magazines including Poetry International, Washington Square Review, Texas Poetry Review, and Éditions d’art Le Sabord, in anthologies including Poetry in Michigan / Michigan in Poetry, from New Issues Press. A variety of Griffor’s poems has been translated into Italian, French, Chinese, Swedish, and Spanish. She has been nominated to the Griffin Poetry Prize, to the Whiting Awards and the PEN/Beyond Margins Award. She was finalist and shortlisted for the 2017 National Translation Award for Canto General by Pablo Neruda.