Note with a Gift -Translation by Katherine Silver + Robin Myers
for Margaret Feigin I give you this lotus, as simple as a flower.It is a flower.It appeared in the water at the park within some circles, shadowy vegetal rhythmsout of the slow layer of detritus, somethinglike a fallen black mass: potential flowers. At first it was a bud, closedcoffer, unopened fingers—thenit slowly offered its perfection.I […]
Lunas -Translated by Katherine Silver + Robin Myers
Moons Come and look at yourself in the moon, an old voice said, and the moonwas the mirror’s golden vessel, standing tall before me, approachingfrom the wall. With iridescent edges and timbers olderthan the voice of that aunt who always swayed and smiled. The mirror left.Men took it down and covered it with cardboard and […]
Illegal -Translation by Katherine Silver + Robin Myers
I’m in another country, say the maps,history, or some other detail—unfamiliar faces, laughter laughingin a foreign accent. It’s true this citycouldn’t be my own. But if I stick a shovel in the ground,the ground, dampened by wintersplits open as it does back there, and the wormwrithes stateless, in love with life. And the very same […]
Events -Translation by Katherine Silver + Robin Myers
The dissolution of Precambrian land masses,so slow and so long ago by now.India (unnamed) crashinginto Asia (everything then unnamed).The emergence of the Himalayas,such extraordinary mountains.The change of climates, slow, ironic;deserts that had been seas, for instance.The extinction of the dinosaurs (colossal stonestumbled from the skies). Or things such as: the arrival of these or those.The […]
Elegy -Translation by Katherine Silver + Robin Myers
Every evening a young man plays his Tarahumara violinin his room. Jesús Hielo. Jesus Ice.My sister remembers him, in Cerocahui.—Outside the world grows, concrete and vast,the hills, endlessly trees, coniferssown fields, grasses, sands, stone.He died today.He was mestizo, they tell me.He has very indigenous features, I answer,then have to correct myself: had.How sad, that first […]
A Word Alone -Translation by Katherine Silver + Robin Myers
There it is, all alone, a beautiful wordwith its long hair loose, facing the sea proud to exist, to be on the beach, naked,all voice, sheer presence, like the sea with its vocalic breasts and its adjective skin,transparent word, child of memory at the mercy of the sand, of the waves and the air,of everything […]
Memorial to the Greats -Translation by Katherine Silver + Robin Myers
The Greats commissioned itas expression and proof of their glory.It was perfection. A tall monolithof perfect crystal. Its structures—hard algebra and transparent stone—formed invisible iridescentcathedrals, concentric. They called it diamond:an entire diamond obelisk.It would be a pure fount of reflections,a deep mirror for the sun.It would tell time. It would mark solstices.It would guide nomads. […]
Blue Car -Translation by Katherine Silver + Robin Myers
My grandmother says the first car I saw was blue.When I remember that I remembered, I say it was green.The car no longer exists. Like an image scratched by a branch in the water,memories fuse, confuse. That’s how fragile the past is.
Mi padre frente al mar -Traducción de Belinda A. Butler
My Father Before the Sea I run through silver slopes and hillsI feel my body as perhaps never before.The air is a clean mantle comingFrom beyond the grasses. From a placeUninhabited and vast. All is luminous and green.I chase a bird that rises, descends, rises againAt times conflated with the sky but reappearingAnd the silky […]
Biografía
INFANCIA: PRIMEROS ACERCAMIENTOS A LA POESÍA Y LOS IDIOMAS Enrique Alberto Servín Herrera nació en la ciudad de Chihuahua el 28 de enero de 1958. Fue el segundo hijo de Enrique Servín Llorente y Elena Alicia Herrera Sánchez-Pareja, quienes tuvieron otros cuatro hijos después de él. Creció acompañado por sus hermanos, primos, y una indudable […]