Eduardo Espina (Uruguay)

Por: Eduardo Espina
Traductor: Nicolás Suescún

PROMETEO
Latinoamerican Poetry Magazine
No 81-82. July 2008.

THE MOTHER COUNTRY, A RECENT OBJECT

(Here life pretends to exist)

The mortality of its matter is the point to
begin; on the verge of remaining wished
for, she finds the pearl and the nickname.
Life as an everlasting gift, like that of the
apprentice and behind, there is another.
As it is to say it would be fleeing at its
rhythm beyond the plain crossing the gate
of the page who's enquiring for the host.
On time to put what never saw the light
of day, the morning sheds blasts of sparkle,
the blush that at the voice announces
nations, no more than the usual tripping
down. Rain comes, the habit of copper and
dew which most certainly is soon superseded.
Everything changes, nothing comes to the
invisible, what the moon in the hay does to
heartache, the winter, to the yielding deer.
From her voice he's heard of its lessened
destiny, in parts idealized as an adornment,
or not. You can sum it thus: the margin of
the bumblebees begins in gerunds and the
song taken to the croaking of the whisper.
The human body defined by possibilities.
A tree, a whirling, and the leaf of grass is set
free when opening wide enough the breach.
The house finds a blooded enclosed land,
Nacre of thistle in order to lose remembrance.
Of all its stature it makes the sky say it.
The skin sleeps in spite of what's happening.
The eyes consider that words are true,
Things look for a place in the sight.

EDUARDO ESPINA was born in Montevideo, Uruguay, in 1950. He published poetry books such as: Valores Personales, 1982; La caza nupcial, 1993; El oro y la liviandad del brillo, 1994; Coto de casa, 1995; Lee un poco más despacio, 1999; Mínimo de mundo visible, 2003 and El cutis patrio, 2006. He is also the author of essay books such as: El disfraz de la modernidad, 1992; Las ruinas de lo imaginario, 1996, and La condición Milli Vanilli. Ensayos de dos siglos, 2003. In Uruguay he was twice awarded with the National Essay Award for his books Las ruinas de lo imaginario and Un plan de indicios. In 1998 he obtained the Municipal Poetry Award for his unpublished book, Deslenguaje.  Thesis and extensive articles have been written about his poetic work, published in prestigious academic magazines like Revista Iberoamericana and Revista de Estudios Hispánicos. In Chile, Con/figuración sintáctica: poesía del deslenguaje, was recently published, a comprehensive study of Espina´s poetic work made by the spanish linguist Enrique Mallén, also author of: Poesía del lenguaje. De T.S. Eliot a Eduardo Espina. Espina´s poetry is studied in the United States, Europe and Latinamerica, and his poems were partially translated into English, French, Italian, Portuguese, German and Croatian. In the United States, where he lives since 1980, Espina is a co-editor of Hispanic Poetry Review. In 2007, he was awarded the Latino Literary Award for El cutis patrio for the best publication in the spanish language in 2006.