Centre for Romanian Studies

Poetry in Translation (CCCLXX), Mexico, Víctor TERÁN (b. 1958, Mexico): “I Know Your Body”, “ Îţi cunosc trupul tău”

Víctor TERÁN
(b. 1958, Mexico)

I Know Your Body

I know your body,
entirely I know you.
If you were a city
I could give perfect directions
to wherever they asked me.
I like all of your body,
I like to see you talk, laugh
move your head. Your two well-rounded hills
are the honey of bees, where my lips celebrate to the gods.
I would have liked to continue storming your forest,
lodgings made deliberately for a nice death.
You were created with love,
your body is worthy of praise. What an honor to have lived,
to have been. I am no longer bothered
when men turn to look at you,
I am no longer impatient when you undress.
You are a stag in the air. A raft of flowers
that snakes across the river by morning.

There is no part of your body that I do not know, there is no
part that I do not like. I want to keep being
the light stunned at the look of your white
roundness of flesh. I want to keep
living
in the beautiful city
that you are.

Rendered in English by David SHOOK

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Víctor TERÁN
(b. 1958, Mexic)

Îţi cunosc trupul tău

Îţi cunosc trupul tău,
te cunosc în cel mai mărunt detaliu.
chiar dacă ai fi fost o cetate
aşi fi putut îndruma
pe oricine m-ar fi întrebat.
Îmi place trupul tău,
îmi place să te-aud vorbind, râzând,
întorcând capul. Colinele tale domoale
sunt ca mierea albinelor, unde buzele mele dau ofrande zeilor.
Aşi fi vrut mereu să iau cu asalt codrul tau,
un cămin menit, deliberat, unei morţi splendide.
Ai fost zămislită cu dragoste,
trupul tău merită osanale. Sunt mândru de a fi trăit,
de a fi existat. Acum nu mai îmi pasă
când bărbaţii întorc capul după tine,
nu mai sunt nerăbdător când te desbraci,
Eşti un cerb care sare peste culmi. Un covor de flori
plutind în zori pe unda râului.

Nu a mai rămas nici o parte a corpului tău care să nu-l cunosc, nici o
parte care să nu îmi placă, Aşi vrea să fiu de-a pururi
lumina înmărmurită, privind sideful
rotund al corpului tău. Aşi vrea de-a pururi
să trăiesc
în această cetate splendidă
care eşti Tu.

Rendered in Romanian by Constantin ROMAN, London,
© 2016 Copyright Constantin ROMAN

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SHORT BIOS: Víctor TERÁN is the most personal poet of the Zapotec Isthmus of Oaxaca, México. He was born in Juchitán de Zaragoza in 1958. His work has been published extensively in magazines and anthologies throughout Mexico. Since 2000, he has also appeared in anthologies in Italy and the United States (Reversible Monuments, Copper Canyon: 2002; Words of the True Peoples, U Texas P: 2005).
A three-time recipient of the national fellowship for writers of indigenous languages, his first book, Diixda; Xieeña (Barefoot Words) was republished in 1997 by Ediciones Bi’cu’ Nisa. His books of poetry include Sica ti Gubidxa Cubi (Like a New Sun; Editorial Diana: 1994) and Ca Guichi Xtí’ Guendaranaxhii (The Spines of Love; Editorial Praxis: 2003). Terán works as a media education teacher at the secondary level, on the Oaxacan Isthmus.
In 2009 his poetry in translation has appeared or is forthcoming in Hayden’s Ferry Review, Oxford Magazine, Poetry, and World Literature Today.

David SHOOK is a poet, translator, and filmmaker in Los Angeles, where he serves as Editorial Director of Phoneme Media, a non-profit publishing house that exclusively publishes literature in translation. Their newest book is Like a New Sun, a collection of contemporary indigenous Mexican poetry, which Shook co-edited along with Víctor Terán.