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Habría
Con cresta
o candor niño
o envión varón habría que osar izar un yo flamante en gozo
o autoengendrar hundido en el propio ego pozo
un nimio virgo vicio
un semi tic o trauma o trac o toc novicios
un novococo inédito por poco
un mero medio huevo al menos de algo nuevo
e inmerso en el subyo intimísimo
volver a ver reverdecer la fe de ser
y creer en crear
y croar y croar
ante todo ende o duende visiblemente real o inexistente
o hacer hacer
dentro de un nido umbrío y tibio
un hijo mito
mixto de silbo ido y de hipo divo de ídolo
o en rancia última instancia del cotidiano entreasco
a escoplo y soplo mago
remodelar habría los orificios psíquicos y físicos corrientes
de tanto espectro diario que desnutre la mecha
o un lazarientio anhelo que todavía se yerga
como si pospudiera
y darle con la proa de la lengua
y darle con las olas de la lengua
y furias y reflujos y mareas
al todo cráter cosmos
sin cráter
de la nada
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There would be, I would have (+ past participle)
both meanings could work, word repeated 2x in poem
cresta=comb, crest, tuft
candor=(poetic) whiteness, candor; niño, adj. or noun
envión=a push or shove; osar=charnel house, or to dare
soundplay & rhyme evident, many similar-sounding words
pozo=well, pit, hole, eddy, whirlpool—recurring word in Moremarrow
nimio=obs. prolix, meticulous, trivial; vicio=vice, waywardness, twist
sound breaking down, proliferating sense; semi tic=semitic, tick tock,
toc=tocar=touch, feel, strike (the hour), tic-tac; toco=Argentine lunfardo
for what’s taken in a robbery; trac=traca=string of firecrackers, =tracto
=stretch, lapse, tract, =tracalada=confusion. Novicios= no vicios
novococo=suggests a new coconut; rhyme and rhythm
al menos=at least; menos de=less than
ver x3 (repeating sound concentrating, reifying sense); literally,
to return to see the faith in being grow green again
words containing each other, as in advertising, reifying connection
amusing double meaning of croak in English, croak and die; this fits
ende=obs. there; duende=hobgoblin, pixie, sprite
mixto=mixed, crossbred, compound; silbo, silbido=whistle, hiss,
hoot; ido=gone, crazy; hipo=hiccup (this poem has a lot), fig. longing,
craving, grudge; divo=adj. divine; n. opera singer
rancia=(adj. f.) rancid, outdated, rank; entre asco=entreacto+asco
escoplo, soplo, mago all resemble 1st person indicative verbs, but are
nouns. Soplo=blow, gust, puff, breath, jiffy. I mage=image, I make magic
desnutrir=transitive or intransitive?; mecha=wick, fuse, lock of hair;
a toda mecha=at full force
lazariento=lazaro=Lazarus, lazarino=leper, lazar (exists in English);
anhelo=anxiousness, eagerness, longing—also suggests angel in English
dar con=to come upon, find
There Would Be
With crest
or candor of boy
or male thrust would have to dare to hoist an I aflame with joy
or autobeget sunk in its own pit of ego
a trivial virgin vice
a semi tic or trauma, take or tock, trick novices
revised but nearly not a novococonut
a mere half egg at least than some beginning
that’s immersed in the most intimate sub I
once more seeing the be leaf in being again turn green
and crediting creating
and croaking and croaking
to begin with any site or sprite visibly real or out of sight
or to make to make
inside a shady eyrie barely warm
a myth son
mixed from unsound whistle wish and godlike hic of idol
or in the rancid finally of the quotidian intersqueamission
to the chisel and blow I mage
to remodel there would be the current psychic and physical orifices
of such a daily wraith that unfeeds the wick
or a lazary yearning angel that still stands up
as if it postcould
and to come upon the prow of the tongue
and to come upon the waves of the tongue
rages and ebbs and tides
to each crater cosmos
with no crater
of nothing
•“There would be” or “I would have…”: the poem teeters between the wistfulness of imagining and the regret of the undone or unfinished. I picked “There would be” in part because it seemed more open in English than the alternative. I translate it both ways in the body of the poem and trust the poem as a whole to convey the teetering.
•This more than some of the other poems in the volume is an incantation, with its song-like use of rhyme and repetition or near-repetition. Is all incantation conditional? Is all lyric?
•The repeating of sound with variation is a magicking with words (“I mage”) to try to bring something into being, to forge reality, to force associations. And the poem also has a self-consciousness or sense of irony about this enterprise.
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Maspleonasmo
Más zafio tranco diario
llagánima
másturbio
sino orate
más seca sed de móviles carnívoros
y mago rapto enlabio de alba albatross
más sacra carne carmen de hipermelosas púberes vibrátiles
de sexotumba góndola
en las fauces del cauce fuera de fértil madre del diosemen
aunque el postedio tienda sus cangrejales lechos
ante el eunuco olvido
más lacios salmos mudos
manos radas lunares
copas de alas
más ciega busca perra tras la verdad
volátil plusramera ineterna
más jaguares deseo
nimios saldos terráqueos en colapso y panentrega extrema
desde las ramas óseas hasta la córnea pánica
a todo huésped sueno del prenoser menguante
a toda pétrea espera
lato amor gayo nato
deliquio tenso encuentro sobre tibias con espasmos adláteres
ya que hasta el unto enllaga las mamas secas másculas
y el mismo pis vertido es un preverso feto si se cogita en fuga
más santo hartazgo grávido de papa rica rima
de tanto lorosimio implume vaterripios
sino hiperhoras truncas dubiengendros acéfalos no piensos
e impactos del tan asco
aunque el cotedio azuces sus jaurías
sorbentes ventosas de bostezos
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more or plus, but, spleen, neo+plasma=neoplasm,
plasmar=plasmo=I create,neologism, orgasm, spasm
tranco=n.m. long stride, threshold, a trancos=in haste
llaga+ánima
más+turbio, masturbarse
mago, rapto can be n. or adj.
mago=mage or magic; rapto=rape, rapture, abducted, ravished
enlabio, n.=enticement, wheedling, cajoling
alba albatross=aurora, argent, albino, alabaster?
alba=white as in alb, priestly vestment
carmen=carmelite order, poem, villa; carmin is the color;
carmenar=tease, card wool; comb or disentangle; rob or cheat
fauces=gullet, jaws; cauce=riverbed, channel; gully, gulf
radas=roads, as in poem “Psychic Roads”
lunares=adj. lunar, n. mole, beauty spot, flaw, blemish,
polka dots
ramera=whore or tree
nimio=obs. prolix, excessive, meticulous, trivial
saldo=balance, settlement, liquidation, bargain sale
entrega=delivery, giving up, episode, installment
oseas=osseous, bony, or o sea?
beknownst, bony fide, bony up
cornea=n. f. cornea; adj.=horny
panica=n.m. panic, adj. of Pan
prenoser=before not being
menguante=n. ebb tide, low water, decline, decay;
adj. diminishing, waning (lunar)
lato=broad, wide, large, diffuse
gayo=gay, bright, showy; gaya ciencia=art of poetry,
minstrelsy; n.m. jay; n.f. stripe, badge, magpie, harlot
tibia=n.f. shin-bone, flute; adj. lukewarm; poner tibio=
to call every name under the sun. tibia tuba tabla bias.
adlátere=lateral, to the side; latero= annoying; Larousse
says barbarism for a látere, but doesn’t define; internet says companero
unto=grease, fat; coll. unto amarillo or de rana=bribe
mama=mamma, breast
másculas=a blend of masculina, mascullar=chew quickly, mumble,
mas+culo
a lot of multiplicity here
piso-floor, story, apartment; pisa=tread, kick; pisada=footprint
verter=pour, shed, spill, translate, utter; v.i. run, flow
preverso=perverso, pre+verso, prever (foresee)
cogitar=reflect, muse, cogitate, cogito ergo sum
papa=pope (n.m.), food, grub, fib, hoax, potato (n.f.), papá
lorosimio=loro+simio, parrot ape, simian parrot
vaterripios=vate (bard, poet, diviner, seer)+terr-, terri-
ripio=rubbish, debris, rubble, fig. padding; no perder ripios
=not to miss a word, chance, or trick
dubiengendros=dubitable+engendros
azuces=azucar (sugar), azucarar, azufre (sulphur), azufarar
ventosa=n.f. vent, airhole; pegar una ventosa=swindle;
estación ventosa=windy season
Morepleonasm
More boorish daily threshold
soresoul
masturbid
lunatic fate
mobile carnivores’ driest thirst
and magic rapt cajolery of alb albatross aurora
most sacred flesh lay of hyperhoneyed vibratile pubescents
order of sextomb gondola
in the gullet of the gully out of the fertile mother of godcome
although postedium stretches its crayfish beds
out to eunuch oblivion
more mute limp psalms
hands lunar roads beauty marks
drinks of wings
more bitch of a blind hunt after truth
volatile ineternal extraharlotree
more jaguars longing
prolix terraqueous liquidations in collapse extreme pansurrender
from the bony fide boughs to the panicky cornea
to each lodger dream of prenotobe waning
to each stony hope
love-lorn gaudy born
taut swoon meeting over tibias oboes with sidekick spasms
since even the grease interulcerates the dry masticuline mammaries
and the very floor spilled is a preverse fetus foretold if mused in flight
most sacred sick bellyful pregnant with pap rich rhyme
so much featherless parrotgibbonish vaticrap
but truncated hyperhours unthought acephalous dubifetuses
and impacts of total disgust
although the quotedium sugarsulphurs its packs of hounds
absorbent airholes of yawns
Notes
•The question of how to translate the title, “Maspleonasmo,” says a lot about the poem as a whole and its translation challenges. “Mas-” has no accent in the title, so it could be “but”; however, the word “más” is a building block throughout the poem. So, “more” or “plus”? “Plus” sounds quite mathematical or logical; there is support for this kind of language throughout the book (givens, being deduced and counterdeduced, etc.). Using “more,” however, expresses the weariness of not only having, say, “mute limp psalms,” which is already exhausting, but having more of them, so that the poet ends up “pregnant with pap.”
•“Pleonasmo” is not remotely like any Spanish word; it seems like a transposition of “neoplasma” except for the masculine (“-o”), or possibly first-person present tense (“I pleonasm”?), ending. Plasma itself is multiple: In physics, it is a distinct phase of matter, separate from the traditional solids, liquids, and gases. It is a collection of charged particles that respond strongly and collectively to electromagnetic fields, taking the form of gas-like clouds or ion beams. It is also the fluid part of blood, lymph, or milk as distinguished from suspended material. Matter, fluid, bodily or other (diosemen), embryo or fetus, reversed or preverse or perverse, not born but already known, expresses the difficulty of engendering anything.
•There are so many figurative strains in the poem they’re hard to follow: the ecclesiastical, the economic, the poetic, the erotic—all systems that fall short, are old, or disappoint. They merge into each other and over- or undercharge meaning, just as the words that could be multiple parts of speech do.