María Calcaño

Born 1906 in the country near Maracaibo, and lived all her life in and near that city; died 1956. Poetry collections: Alas Fatales, 1935; Canciones que Oyeron mis Ultimas Muñecas, 1956; Entre la Luna y los Hombres, 1961.

Spanish Text

COSMOS

A great nakedness:
my body
and the night...

But I dream in the dawn

Dawn:
unfolding of blood
and wings.

And the bird,
master of the wood
with a trill...

Life
is this mound of fertile earth!

Man
and I
are the chimera.

God
in his grave truth.

And over us,
like a curse,
this monstrous shadow...

 

CARRIED AWAY BY THE BEAUTIFUL FAUN

Following some seaweed
I leave the beach behind.
The morning is hanging
on my eyes.

A tall wave
brings the whole sea to me.
And the sea has invaded my forest
with its rustling, unraveled crystal.

Carried away by the most beautiful faun
undreamt of by earth,
I get a fright of vast blue.

All arms, all life
all breath.

I give myself to the sea
as one does to a man.

 

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