Mara Pastor is a Puerto Rican poet, editor, and translator. Her works include the chapbook As Though the Wound Had Heard (Cardboard House Press, 2017, Tr. María José Giménez), Children of Another Hour (Argos Books, 2013, Tr. Noel Black), and the acclaimed collection Poemas para fomentar el turismo, finalist for the 2013 Premio Internacional Festival de la Lira in Ecuador. Other books in Spanish include Sal de magnesio (2015), Arcadian Boutique (2014), Candada por error (2009), and Alabalacera (2006). Her poems have been translated into more than six languages, and her work has appeared in publications such as Boston Review, 80 grados, Clarín, and El País. Her skill as a live performer of poetry has given her a place in renowned festivals such as Festival de Poesía de Rosario, Argentina; Latinale, Berlin (2016); Festival de la Palabra, San Juan (2015); Festival de la Lira, Ecuador (2015); La Habana International Book Fair, Cuba (2014) and Festival del Caracol, Tijuana (2013). Her poetry has been anthologized in 1,000 millones: poesía en lengua española del siglo XXI (2014), Red de voces: poesía contemporánea puertorriqueña (Casa de las Américas, 2012), and Hallucinated Horse: New Latin American Poets (Pig Hog Press, 2012). Coeditor of the anthology of Puerto Rican contemporary poetry Vientos Alisios, she was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and lives in Ponce, Puerto Rico.
María José Giménez is a Venezuelan-Canadian poet, translator, and editor working in English, Spanish, and French. Assistant Translation Editor for Anomaly (fka Drunken Boat), María José is recipient of the 2016 Gabo Prize for Translation and fellowships from the NEA, The Banff International Literary Translation Centre, and the Katherine Bakeless Nason Endowment. Published translations include Edurne Pasaban’s memoir Tilting at Mountains (Mountaineers Books, 2014), Alejandro Saravia’s novel, Red, Yellow, Green (Biblioasis, 2017), and a chapbook of poems by Mara Pastor, As Though The Wound Had Heard (Cardboard House Press, 2017). Learn more at mariajosetranslates.com.---------
Turismo interno
Escuchan estallar
a lo lejos
las gasolineras.
Hermosos animales
que conversan
el lápiz y el cansancio.
Pensaba
en estudiantes
como recogiendo
palabras de un derrame petrolero.
Domestic Tourism
They hear the gas stations
burst
in the distance.
Beautiful animals
conversing
about pencil and exhaustion.
I thought
about students
as if collecting
words from an oil spill.
Neda
Una joven músico
murió interceptada
por una bala cuando decidió
bajarse del coche en que viajaba
durante una protesta en Irán.
Se llamaba Voz en persa.
Neda
A young musician
died intercepted
by a bullet when she decided
to leave the car she was riding
during a protest in Iran.
Her name was Voice in Persian.
La mirada se cansa en el monitor
Un café se enfría.
Tantas horas juntos sin hablarnos.
Cuántas veces la física nos falla.
Dejemos de escribir en rectángulos.
Hay un universo en la esquina
haciendo tiempo.
Eyes Get Tired at the Monitor
The coffee is getting cold.
So many hours together without talking.
How often physics fails us.
Let’s stop writing in rectangles.
There is a universe at the corner
making time.
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Gimenez photo credit: Henry Amistadi
Pastor photo credit: Virginia Molinari