Jaime Sabines: Your body by my side
Your body by my side is
easy, sweet, quiet.
Your head on my chest repents
with eyes closed
and I look at you and smoke
and enamored I caress your hair.
The mortal tenderness that I keep
quiet about is hugging you while I have
my arms immovable.
I look at my body, my thigh
where your fatigue rests,
your soft breasts hidden and tight
and the low and gentle breathing of your belly
without my lips.
I tell you in a low voice
things I invent all the time
and I really get sad and lonely
and I kiss you as if you were your portrait.
You, without speaking, you look at me
and you squeeze me and make your lament with
no tears, no eyes, no fright.
And I go back to smoking, while things
start listening to what we do not talk about.
Tu cuerpo está a mi lado
fácil, dulce, callado.
Tu cabeza en mi pecho se arrepiente
con los ojos cerrados
y yo te miro y fumo
y acaricio tu pelo enamorado.
Esta mortal ternura con que callo
te está abrazando a ti mientras yo tengo
inmóviles mis brazos.
Miro mi cuerpo, el muslo
en que descansa tu cansancio,
tu blando seno oculto y apretado
y el bajo y suave respirar de tu vientre
sin mis labios.
Te digo a media voz
cosas que invento a cada rato
y me pongo de veras triste y solo
y te beso como si fueras tu retrato.
Tú, sin hablar, me miras
y te aprietas a mí y haces tu llanto
sin lágrimas, sin ojos, sin espanto.
Y yo vuelvo a fumar, mientras las cosas
se ponen a escuchar lo que no hablamos.
.
Translation copyright 2018 John Samuel Tieman. This poem is from Diario semanario y poemas en prose by Jaime Sabines, first published in 1961.
.
Josefa Rodríguez Zebadúa y Jaime Sabines, en imagen de 1953 tomada del libro publicado por Joaquín MortizFoto Archivo personal de la familia Sabines Rodríguez
Sweet and fashionable. I understand that body is the self un western wisdom. You are free to do with your body what you want. Even you can challeng the will of God as when deciding to take your life by your hands. Others transformed the body into papers they tatoo on it. It is a new approach to thing very personal.
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