You are tired
e. e. cummings
You are tired,
(I think)
Of the always puzzle of living and doing;
And so am I.
Come with me, then,
And we’ll leave it far and far away—
(Only you and I, understand!)
You have played,
(I think)
And broke the toys you were fondest of,
And are a little tired now;
Tired of things that break, and—
Just tired.
So am I.
But […]

by Mia on 8:44 pm, May 3, 2008 in echoes none spoke

To The Desert
Benjamin Alire Sáenz
I came to you one rainless August night.
You taught me how to live without the rain.
You are thirst and thirst is all I know.
You are sand, wind, sun, and burning sky,
The hottest blue. You blow a breeze and brand
Your breath into my mouth. You reach–then bend
Your force, to break, blow, burn, […]

by Mia on 4:01 pm, April 30, 2008 in echoes none spoke

ChickenJoy
Ali Sangalang
Mula nang mapanood ko
sa telebisyon
ang mamang nangangalkal
ng tira-tira
sa basurahan,
hindi ko na sinasaid
ang manok ko
sa pinggan.
–
Rough line-by-line translation:
From the time I saw
on television
the man rooting
for leftovers
in the trash,
I stopped picking clean
the chicken
on my plate.

by Mia on 10:03 pm, April 27, 2008 in echoes none spoke

From Blossoms
Li-Young Le
From blossoms comes
this brown paper bag of peaches
we bought from the boy
at the bend in the road where we turned toward
signs painted Peaches.
From laden boughs, from hands,
from sweet fellowship in the bins,
comes nectar at the roadside, succulent
peaches we devour, dusty skin and all,
comes the familiar dust of summer, dust we eat.
O, to take […]

by Mia on 12:51 am, April 16, 2008 in echoes none spoke

Unrequited Love
Yevgeny Yevtushenko
translated by Michael Glenny
to I. Kvasha
Love unrequited is a crushing yoke;
but if you see love as a game,
a trophy,
then unrequited love’s absurd, a joke–
like Cyrano de Bergerac’s odd profile.
One day a hard-boiled Russian in the theater
said to his wife, in words that clearly hurt her:
“Why does this Cyrano upset you all?
The fool!
Now I, […]

by Mia on 1:44 am, April 4, 2008 in echoes none spoke

One Art
by Elizabeth Bishop
The art of losing isn’t hard to master;
so many things seem filled with the intent
to be lost that their loss is no disaster.
Lose something every day. Accept the fluster
of lost door keys, the hour badly spent.
The art of losing isn’t hard to master.
Then practice losing farther, losing faster:
places, and names, and where […]

by Mia on 11:35 am, March 31, 2008 in echoes (2) spoke

For Example, A Flower
Arkaye Kierulf
We are protected from so much pain. For example: graves.
The earth’s roots and brown-black blood are busy
covering the soft, violated bodies of our loves.
Death is a secret, and the rain with its many hands
washes off the streets to the gutters death’s thick surprise.
The automatic shutter of the eye never fails,
the courtesies […]

by Mia on 2:49 am, February 8, 2008 in echoes (1) spoke

Excerpt from The Sonnets to Orpheus: II, 13
Rainer Maria Rilke
Translated by Stephen Mitchell
Be ahead of all parting, as though it already were
behind you, like the winter that has just gone by.
For among these winters there is one so endlessly winter
that only by wintering through it will your heart survive.
Be forever dead in Eurydice–more gladly arise
into […]

by Mia on 10:55 pm, January 29, 2008 in echoes none spoke

Tila Ako si Bidasari
Ruth Elynia S. Mabanglo
Tila ako si Bidasari–
Patay sa araw, buhay sa gabi:
Naghihintay kay Sultan Mogindra
Na sa buhay ko’y ikaw;
Naghihintay ng maalamat na halik
Na isiil mo sa dagat na dibdib
Upang ibangon ako
Sa masasamyong panaginip.
Laon,
Laon na,
Laon na ngang ako’y naghihintay
Sa mga hubad na paang iyong idadantay
Upang muli’t muli’y iyong mapasiklot
Ang kilii kong natutulog
Sa balakang […]

by Mia on 3:23 pm, November 11, 2007 in echoes (1) spoke

[Dove that ventured outside]
Rainer Maria Rilke
trans. Stephen Mitchell
for Erika
Dove that ventured outside, flying far from the dovecote:
housed and protected again, one with the day, the night,
knows what serenity is, for she has felt her wings
pass through all […]

by Mia on 10:35 pm, November 6, 2007 in echoes none spoke