Translated by Katherine M. Hedeen
1 [158 Campanario Street]
first and foremost to scrape
everything you see
the homeland’s in the claves
the city rooster waking up traffic
and later to pickaxe
on wet parts bratty digits
the homeland is solid ground
held up by mangrove roots
in its thirst for color reality
soaks up what the blind man
gets for it with equine bristles
it can be an atoll a woman
and if you push a dream
you always need a second coat
14 [Paseo del Prado]
this country’s gotten out of foot
and took another way
with its dense routine
not even a rumba could upset
legendary mulatas
fanning their wait ripe with heat
and chinos in line smile
at the doors of nothing
country of reggaetón dual currency
ideological stridency
where the only thing decent is the sun
country resolute in triangular ruins
breathless on the stairs
no longer here or returning with you
15 [Zenaida’s House]
resolved to repair what’s irreparable
in the city blocked up by dust
table changed
to idea of table
turtle to vegetal shell
and fleshy leaves with borders
to fossil panting
you search for a meaning
to the packed solar
to every spider in the loft
yet this space holds your rhythm
not even death hurries it up gets here late
for a decent place
to dust off being with a tiny rag
Víctor Rodríguez Núñez (Havana 1955) is a poet, journalist, literary critic, translator, and scholar. He has published thirty books of poetry throughout Latin America and Europe, and his work has long been the recipient of major awards throughout the Spanish-speaking world, most recently, Spain’s coveted Loewe Poetry Prize. He has compiled three anthologies that define his poetic generation, as well as another of 20th century Cuban poetry, La poesía del siglo XX en Cuba (2011). He has brought out various critical editions, introductions, and essays on Spanish American poets. One of Cuba’s most outstanding contemporary writers, he divides his time between Gambier, Ohio, where he is Professor of Spanish at Kenyon College, and Havana.
Katherine M. Hedeen is a specialist in Latin American poetry and has both extensively written on and translated contemporary authors from the region. Her book-length translations include published collections by Rodolfo Alonso, Juan Bañuelos, Juan Calzadilla, Marco Antonio Campos, Luis García Montero, Juan Gelman, Fayad Jamís, Hugo Mujica, José Emilio Pacheco, Víctor Rodríguez Núñez, and Ida Vitale. She is an associate editor of Earthwork’s Latin American Poetry in Translation Series for Salt Publishing and an acquisitions editor for Arc Publications. She is the recipient of a 2009 and a 2015 National Endowment for the Arts Translation Project Grant. She resides in Ohio where she is Professor of Spanish at Kenyon College.
