Two Poems
They taught me to beg
with my hands together
and to receive with them open
every day and every night
the fist that forms a spike
snatches what is forged in grace
to pause and raise my hands
in praise to the dream?
self-deceit is a school
where I excel in grades
and my hands grow tired of threshing the wheat
with desires as teachers
and a soul that doesn’t even dare
for its whole body to crawl
I could take the bread
as path and giving as prayer
I keep covering my face
every day and every night
Breath
to hold tight to these frets
move the fingers to the chest
and hit a chord
that stops me and sees my body
melodious
but to sleep in a scroll
that is written
with the doubts of a man
whom life passes by
sealing the pact that the Name
obliges
perhaps irresponsible
as a brother
when I awake
may a ballad take me
to the heartbeat that harmonizes
everything
(from Emaús y el vientre de arena [Emmaus and the belly of sand], 2016)
Translated by Arthur Dixon
Robert Rincón (Valencia, 1985) is a poet and musician with a degree in Education and minors in Language and Literature. He completed a master’s in Latin American Literature. He is Editor in Chief of the journal Poesía of the Universidad de Carabobo. He has published two verse collections: Mercaderes [Merchants] (2010) and Emaús y el vientre de arena [Emmaus and the belly of sand] (2016). The latter was awarded the fifth Premio Nacional Universitario de Literatura. He is currently working toward a doctorate in Social Sciences with a minor in Cultural Studies at the Universidad de Carabobo.
Arthur Malcolm Dixon is co-founder, lead translator, and Managing Editor of Latin American Literature Today. He has translated the novels Immigration: The Contest by Carlos Gámez Pérez and There Are Not So Many Stars by Isaí Moreno (Katakana Editores), as well as the verse collection Intensive Care by Arturo Gutiérrez Plaza (Alliteratïon). He also works as a community interpreter in Tulsa, Oklahoma and is a 2020-2021 Tulsa Artist Fellow.
Recommended Reading:
LALT No. 6 goes from the gripping true stories of literary journalism to the strange worlds of fantastic short stories and graphic literature. We highlight chronicles by Colombian journalist Alberto Salcedo Ramos, speculative fiction in a dossier curated by Mexican writer Alberto Chimal, and Yucatec Maya poetry and prose in our ongoing Indigenous Literature series.