Oliverio Girondo (translated by Dan Newland)
Thread poster: Aurora Humarán (X)
Aurora Humarán (X)
Aurora Humarán (X)  Identity Verified
Argentina
Local time: 17:55
English to Spanish
+ ...
Dec 4, 2005



I don't give a darn if women's breasts are like magnolias or like dried figs; a complexion like a peach or like sandpaper. Importance equal to zero I give to whether they awake with a breath like an aphrodisiac or a breath like insecticide. I am perfectly capable of bearing a nose that would take first prize at a carrot show; but one thing is for sure! An
... See more


I don't give a darn if women's breasts are like magnolias or like dried figs; a complexion like a peach or like sandpaper. Importance equal to zero I give to whether they awake with a breath like an aphrodisiac or a breath like insecticide. I am perfectly capable of bearing a nose that would take first prize at a carrot show; but one thing is for sure! And this is irreducible. Under no pretext whatsoever will I forgive them for not knowing how to fly. Any one of them who doesn't know how to fly is wasting her time trying to seduce me!

This was – and none other – the reason that I fell in love, so madly, with María Luisa.

What did I care about her lips in installments and her sulfurous jealousies? What did I care about her web-footed extremities and her looks that withheld judgment?

María Luisa was truly light as a feather!

From daybreak on, she flew from the bedroom to the kitchen, from the dining room to the pantry. Flying she prepared my bath, my shirt. Flying she did her shopping, her chores…

With what impatience I waited for her to return, flying, from some outing in the surroundings! There far off, lost in the clouds, a little pink dot. "María Luisa! María Luisa!...and in a few seconds, she was there embracing me with her feather-like legs, to carry me, flying, to anyplace at all.

For kilometers in silence we soared on a caress that brought us close to paradise; for hours on end we nested in a cloud, like two angels, and then suddenly, in a loop-the-loop, on a dead leaf, the forced landing of a spasm.

How delightful to have a woman so light…even if she makes us, from time to time, see stars! How voluptuous to pass the days among the clouds…to pass the night on a single flight!

After knowing an ethereal woman, can an earthly woman render us any sort of attraction? Isn't it true that there is no substantial difference between living with a cow or with a woman who has her buttocks seventy-eight centimeters off the ground?

I, at least, am incapable of understanding the seduction of a pedestrian woman, and no matter how much effort I put into conceiving of it, it is not possible for me to even imagine that love can be made any other way but flying.

Oliverio Girondo
(translated by Dan Newland)




[...]Born in Buenos Aires to a wealthy Argentine family, the young Girondo studied in England and France during his formative years. Girondo's independently wealthy status allowed the poet an ideological and professional freedom which he embraced completely. This privileged contact with Europe and subsequent introduction to surrealism provided Girondo with the opportunity to experiment poetically and to immerse himself in the vanguard movement before returning to his native Argentina. Among Girondo's circle of friends and influences were Salvador Dalí, Federico García Lorca and Macedonio Fernández.

After many years of travel, Girondo settled permanently in Buenos Aires in 1931. In 1946, after the publication of Campo nuestro, Girondo married fellow author Norah Lange and their household soon became the center of many Buenos Aires literary activities. Girondo influenced many young Argentine writers, serving as a mentor for the formation of literary journals and surrealist poetry groups.
[...]

http://www.library.nd.edu/rarebooks/collections/rarebooks/hispanic/southern_cone/girondo/index.shtml


[Edited at 2005-12-05 00:20]
Collapse


 
Aurora Humarán (X)
Aurora Humarán (X)  Identity Verified
Argentina
Local time: 17:55
English to Spanish
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
Bloodless dichotomy Dec 6, 2005

My hand always arrives
later than another hand that mixes with mine and forms one hand.
When I go to sit down
I become aware that my body
is sitting on another body that has just sat down
where I am sitting.


And in the precise instant
that I enter a house,
I discover that I was already there
before I ever arrived.


That is why it is quite possible that I won't attend my burial,
and that while they show
... See more
My hand always arrives
later than another hand that mixes with mine and forms one hand.
When I go to sit down
I become aware that my body
is sitting on another body that has just sat down
where I am sitting.


And in the precise instant
that I enter a house,
I discover that I was already there
before I ever arrived.


That is why it is quite possible that I won't attend my burial,
and that while they shower me with commonplace sayings,
I will already be in my tomb
dressed as a skeleton,
yawning at the phony expressions and weeping.

Oliverio Girondo + Dan Newland



[Edited at 2005-12-06 09:13]
Collapse


 


To report site rules violations or get help, contact a site moderator:


You can also contact site staff by submitting a support request »

Oliverio Girondo (translated by Dan Newland)







Anycount & Translation Office 3000
Translation Office 3000

Translation Office 3000 is an advanced accounting tool for freelance translators and small agencies. TO3000 easily and seamlessly integrates with the business life of professional freelance translators.

More info »
TM-Town
Manage your TMs and Terms ... and boost your translation business

Are you ready for something fresh in the industry? TM-Town is a unique new site for you -- the freelance translator -- to store, manage and share translation memories (TMs) and glossaries...and potentially meet new clients on the basis of your prior work.

More info »