EROTIC IMAGINARY

 

The garden is quiet bearing the weight of the evening

of a March that will announce itself as windy

 

So fleeting it is more like January

 

Penetrated at night through lemon trees and acacias

Distantly opaline on the forehead of the sky

The garden shudders from within

 

Between dry branches and rotting leaves

doze beetles Dragonflies   Lizards

A lazy malicious cat hunts a butterfly

 

Suddenly an almost invisible mist descends

and rests its shadows on the leaves

caressing the knot of our bodies

in the same infinitely slow delight

with which I half strength half fear

kiss your neck and your black crystal beard

The garden is scented with masculine sweat

with the saliva of deep kisses which long

to unleash the torrent of desire at its height

so that saps may flow and bodies relax

 

Translated by Mike Baynham from a poem in Spanish by Raúl Gómez Jattín. La hamaca nuestra/Our hammock. Raúl Gómez Jattín: a queer Colombian poet in translation

 

Original text in Spanish

 

ERÓTICO IMAGINARIO

 

Está quieto el jardín soportando la tarde

De un marzo que se anunciará ventoso

 

Tan fugaz que parece un enero

 

Penetrado de noche en limoneros y acacias

Opalino a lo lejos en la frente del cielo

El jardín se estremece por dentro

 

Entre ramas secas y hojas podridas

dormitan escarabajos   Libélulas   Lagartos

Un gato de ocio y maldad acecha una mariposa

 

De repente una casi invisible neblina desciende

y posa su penumbra en la fronda

acariciando el nudo de nuestros cuerpos

con la misma dulzura lentísima

con que yo mitad fuerza mitad miedo

beso tu cuello y tu barba de negro cristal

Está el jardín oloroso a sudor masculino

a saliva de besos profundos que anhelan

desatar el torrente del deseo a su cima

y que fluyan las savias y descansen los cuerpos

Poema de Raúl Gómez Jattín

Copyright © Rubén Gómez Jattín