Night Is Coming On

translated by

Willendorf Venus Natural History Museum, Vienna, Austria. © Jorge Royan / http://www.royan.com.ar / CC BY-SA 3.0

Willendorf Venus Natural History Museum, Vienna, Austria. © Jorge Royan / commons.wikimedia.org

Night is coming on.
Pirate flags,
family pictures,
superhero figures
and the image of Venus de Willendorf
on the scale of 1:1
in the shadows.
The book spines blur.
Night is an enormous widow
covering the windows of the salon.
Her black, silent weeping
inundates the library.
Day is a cadaver that will quickly turn into dust
and become lost among the shadows.

Translated by Dick Gerdes

Luis Alberto de Cuenca (b. 1950, Madrid) is perhaps the one Spanish poet today who has influenced most of the younger generations of poets. He recently received the National Poetry Award for his latest book of poetry, Cuaderno de vacaciones (Visor, 2014). His poetry combines urban reality, pop culture, and classical antiquity while maintaining his own identity through irony, elegance, and a tone of lightheartedness.

Dick Gerdes ([email protected]) is an award-winning translator who lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He has translated works from the Spanish by important novelists such as Alfredo Bryce Echenique, Ana María Shua, Diamela Eltit, and Gonzalo Celorio, among others.

Editorial Note: For more, read “Urban Reality and Classical Antiquity: A Conversation with Luis Alberto de Cuenca.”