Gabriel Jiménez Emán (Venezuela)
Por: Gabriel Jiménez Emán
My Dear Beer
I always dream I'm swimming on a great crest of beer
I draw my weapon in the middle of the swell
and I feel the froth, my ears full of music
but I am not able to shoot
waking I would shoot myself
like the desperado when the tide rises
putting his hands together in the only entreaty
that of communicating with the dead
and of flying in pieces when one least expects it
I have not been able to find a more beautiful death
than killing oneself with beer
the great secret of the golden cups
going through my throat like an arrow
sweetness of empty eyes
Poetry
At night immense jets of beer
rise from the earth
dragging me to spots
where all the shame of the world is lost
funereal women come out from the far corners
to kiss us, to bite our lips on cold beds
with all the silence distilled by love
in the gentle pornography
laughing wholeheartedly about life, as if returning home
we would have left the horizon wounded
several dead seagulls and a far-off beer flavor
that never humiliates us
Gabriel Jiménez Emán was born in Caracas, Venezuela, in 1950. Poet, narrator, essayist, translator and editor. His work has been translated to several languages and collections in Latin American and European anthologies. He has represented Venezuela in international events in Athens, Paris, New York, Mexico and Seville. Some short stories: Los dientes de Raquel, 1973; Saltos sobre la soga, 1975; Los 1001 cuentos de 1 línea, 1980; Relatos de otro mundo, 1988; Tramas imaginarias, 1990; Biografías grotescas, 1997; y La gran jaqueca y otros cuentos crueles, 2002. Algunas novelas, La isla del otro, 1979 y Una fiesta memorable (Planeta, 1991). Libros de poesía: Materias de sombra, Premio Monte Ávila de Poesía, 1983; Narración del doble, 1978; Baladas profanas, 1993; and Proso estos versos, 1998. That same year the Cinemateca Nacional published his book of film essays Spectra of the cinema. Invited professor in the literary workshops of the Universidad Central and the University of Los Andes. He has worked in the Literature Direction of the Conac and the magazine Image of the same entity, in the Ministry of International Relations, in Venezolana de Television, in the Center of Latin American Studies Rómulo Gallegos, and he has been director of the House of Poetry of the Yacambú University (Barquisimeto). Poetry translator from the English language.
