Archive | Books & Reading RSS feed for this section

The Nightmare, by Luis Alberto de Cuenca

By on 12 March, 2010 in Poetry

Another translation effort.

The Nightmare
by Luis Alberto de Cuenca

Javier has decided to kill himself.
He chooses to do it far away from his house,
where the furniture doesn’t recognize him
and the walls don’t talk to him about Marta.
He travels to disaster on the highway
which draws things out too much. He knows
that he won’t make the return trip and never
will have to repeat that torment.
The gasoline runs out, and his car
stops a kilometer away from Burgos. Continue Reading →

Comments { 1 }

Rita, by Luis Alberto de Cuenca

By on 10 March, 2010 in Poetry

I was waiting for a meeting in the library and happened across this poem, which I couldn’t resist doing a quick translation of.

Rita
by Luis Alberto de Cuenca

Rita, what are you going to do on Sunday? Are there Sundays
where you live? Are there social engagements? Do people arrive late?
I don’t know why I overwhelm you with useless questions,
why I keep thinking you can answer me.
I know that you’d like to have a voice
instead of silence, and escape from the grave
to tell me things about the land of the dead.
But you can’t, Rita, and I shouldn’t dream of you
on a night in August as lively as tonight.
One must keep up appearances. In any case, Sundays
are the worst days to leave the house.

Comments { 1 }
Image

Shame

By on 7 October, 2009 in Poetry

Shame

Comments { 0 }
Aside

Kurt Vonnegut on Hitler

By on 13 March, 2009 in Books & Reading

From Studs Terkel’s Will The Circle Be Unbroken?

kurt vonnegut

In one of my books, I wrote about Hitler’s last words. As he’s down there in the bunker and the Russians are right up above him, and if they catch him they’re going to put him in a cage and show him around and humiliate him, piss on him. So he’s definitely gonna have to kill himself. The whole question is what his last words should be. There are other witnesses to hear his last words. Goebbels is there, and Martin Bormann, to hear what this great man’s last words are. And Hitler says, “I regret nothing.” Goebbels points out to him that this is in fact a song by Edith Piaf. People are going to see the similarity. She was called “the little sparrow.” His last words are going to be the same thing the little sparrow says. Finally he says, “I never asked to be born in the first place.” And he blows his brains out. What are you gonna do?

That’s what Secular Humanism will do to you.

Comments { 0 }