Earlier Body

Jorge Eduardo Eielson
Translated from the Spanish by Shook

The rainbow courses through my father and my motherWhile they sleep. They are not nakedNot covered by pajamas no sheet whatsoeverThey are more like a cloudIn the shape of a woman and man intertwinedPerhaps the first man and the first womanUpon the earth. The rainbow surprises meSeeing lizards run between the intersticesOf their bones and my bones     seeingA sky-blue cotton grow between their browsNow they can’t see me     can’t embrace     can’t moveThe rainbow takes them againLike it takes my thinkingMy youth and my eyeglasses  Cuerpo AnteriorEl arco iris atraviesa mi padre y mi madreMientras duermen. No están desnudosNi los cubre pijama ni sábana algunaSon más bien una nubeEn forma de mujer y hombre entrelazadosQuizás el primer hombre y la primera mujerSobre la tierra. El arco iris me sorprendeViendo correr lagartijas entre los intersticiosDe sus huesos y mis huesos     viendo crecerUn algodón celeste entre sus cejasYa ni me miran     ni se abrazan     ni se muevenEl arco iris se los lleva nuevamenteComo se lleva mi pensamientoMi juventud y mis anteojos

Feature Date

Series

  • Translation

Selected By

Share This Poem

Print This Poem

Jorge Eduardo Eielson was a queer artist and writer, and one of the most important cultural figures of the 20th century. He was born in Lima, Peru on April 13, 1924, to a Peruvian mother and Swedish father. Eielson was an active member of the avant-garde movements in his native Lima, as well as those in Paris, Rome, and New York. The poet died on March 8, 2006, and his ashes were buried alongside his partner’s in a small cemetery in Bari Sardo, Italy.

Headshot of Shook

Shook is a poet and translator in Northern California. Their most recent translations include Farhad Pirbal’s Refugee Number 33,333, with Pshtiwan Kamal, and Jorge Eduardo Eielson’s Dark Night of the Body. Since living for two years in Kurdistan, they have collaboratively translated over a dozen writers into English and Spanish, including a book-length translation with Jiyar Homer of Farhad Pirbal’s Refugiado número 33,333.

Cover of Dark Night of the Body

PUBLISHER

Dark Night of the Body
Cardboard House Press

Phoenix, Arizona

  • Featured book

“An influential midcentury Peruvian poet who exiled himself to Europe after publishing the initial works that made him a legend in his home country (...) one of Latin America’s most important wordsmiths.”
—World Literature Today

Poetry Daily Depends on You

With your support, we make reading the best contemporary poetry a treasured daily experience. Consider a contribution today.

DONATE NOW