Rigoberto Paredes (Honduras)
Por:
Rigoberto Paredes
Traductor:
Janet Melvin
Memorial
one returns to the place where he left his life
when everything was the same age as dawn
lets his steps fall
on steps no longer resisting us
looks at the town's clock
ant it marks the same hours that impelled our childhood
someone kisses us sweetly on one cheek
and on the other we feel oblivion's slap
one comes back
and there's no mother saying we've waited for you always
no father scolding us for our absence
time returns us to our origin in mellow waves
this that the house
the child crying for a bite
and the patio with old folks awaiting death at all hours
one comes back and there's no dog gaily wagging its tail for us
there's no one even saying things are worse why did you come back
only the age-old questions and the same terrible reality
the church with its beggars
fear and its judges
silence and its kin disrespecting the monuments
(the world that's barely ours what a shaft)
rage is not the same it grows without mercy
it's a wild beast stalking
and inside it tell us
we've come so far it's impossible to forgive.
Rigoberto Paredes was born in Santa Bárbara, Honduras, in 1948. Published poetry books: En lugar de los hechos, 1974; Las cosas por su nombre; Materia prima 1985; Fuego lento, antología personal, 1989 and La estación perdida, Co-author of the anthology Poesía contemporánea de Centro América.
