Horizontally

Like my body, the sun

rises with wordless speech

and like my mind, the sun

sets with speechless words.

You, a non-conformist (we’ve decided), are ready

to settle down, see what those

white picket fences could translate to.

We haven’t decided if

“yet” is our enigma and “still” our flame.

Our task is to redefine, to tame.

This is a love of a kind (like any other, like no other)

with unintentional gifts.

If we resign, give in to the accompanying scares,

one thing is bound to be lost,

you, me, or yesterday’s tomorrow.

Like two bodies, the world

rotates with irrational ease

and like two minds, the world

is not satisfied with the answers we give.

The Architrave (translation of Jaime Gil de Biedma)

                                                Scaffolds for ideas

One lives among pompous people. There’s one who speaks

of the architrave and its problems

the same as if it were a cousin

-very close, actually.

And so, it seems that the architrave

is in serious danger. Nobody knows

very well why it’s like this, but they say so.

There is one who has been saying so for twenty years.

There’s one who speaks also of the enemy:

Incomprehensible beings

are everywhere to be seen, they are insinuated

the same as dust in rooms.

And there’s the one who raises scaffolds

So that it doesn’t fall: careful people.

(Curious how scaffold is not just for buildings but also a platform where people are executed.)

One goes out onto the street

And kisses a girl o buys a book,

He strolls, happy. And they look daggers at him:

But how does he dare?

                                    The architrave…! 

 ***

Original en castellano + intentos de explicación: http://books.google.es/books?id=m6JULI43dOoC&pg=PA118&lpg=PA118&dq=el+arquitrabe+gil+de+biedma&source=bl&ots=A-xdNi9LEN&sig=1vS8wE3a7IbRF9EddKIi7FOzdp8&hl=es&ei=8oKoTPKTHoHNjAfi7a3qDA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=10&ved=0CEMQ6AEwCQ#v=onepage&q=el%20arquitrabe%20gil%20de%20biedma&f=false