Una mujer como yo de Fernanda Laguna

A woman like me, for example

A woman

doesn't deserve

the time

to dedicate herself

to things that interest her.

Because...

Is it because the things that interest a woman

aren't interesting?

Or is it because....

A woman doesn't show enough interest

in the things that interest her for others

to think they're interesting and give her the time?

Or is it because...

The interesting things she does are things that are interesting to someone else

precisely because they're things that someone else doesn't find interesting?

A woman asks herself

so many questions...

A woman like me, for example

who has a few brief moments

to do something that interests her.

And while these moments pass her by

she asks herself

Was this what I wanted to do?

Ask myself questions like these?

Waste this precious hour they have granted me

thinking about things I'm not even sure I want to think about?

Does a woman really deserve

the time to do the things she wants to do

if she doesn't know what she wants to do, really?

Does she deserve the time it takes

to believe that she wants to do something?

Does it even make sense to keep thinking about it?

It doesn't matter,

the lost time is what it is to be a woman.

A woman like me,

for example.

So it is and so it must be and so it must not be

When a female human being thinks of herself

she thinks

about whether she is a human being or not.

A woman believes she has to be so smart

that the rest of the world has to convince itself that in fact she's quite stupid

because deep down she believes that the more she's cast aside

the freer and happier she'll be,

cast aside to the place in life cast aside by the means of production.

That wondrous place where ungovernable things thrive,

ungraspable things,

things like life and death,

and time and love and secrets,

and beauty and intuition,

and the universe and everything inside it,

simple and meaningless things,

among other "things."

Or something like that... I think.

Anyway.... it's very difficult to finish a poem

and give it a fixed meaning.

But I did pretty good, right?

A woman is someone like me, for example.

(traducción Stuart Krimko)

Ayer Stuart leyó las traducciones de nuestros poemas en Los Àngeles. Pienso que es increíble cómo los poetas se conectan persona a persona, sin instituciones ni bienales ni becas ni nada. Sólo las palabras (de los libros) y la amistad. Bueno, ya sé que es un poco idealista mi visión, pero a mí me encanta. Gracias Stuart.