En la entraña del tiempo In the Heart of Time

En la entraña del tiempo

El tiempo cede
y entreabre
su delicada profundidad. (Puertas
ue unas a otras se protegen; que unas en otras entran; huellas,
rastros de mar.) Un otoño
de leños y hojarascas. En su fondo:
La espesura translúcida del placer; sus hiedras íntimas:
Oro:
foliaciones de luz: Fuego que enraiza en el metal florecido,
y un musgo fino,
incandescente.
 

In the Heart of Time

Time lets its subtle depths
half-open.  (Doors
shielding one another; pushing open, one to another; the spoors
and traces of the sea.)  This autumn
of kindling wood, drifts of leaves.  At its heart,
forests of pleasure where the light shines through; its ivies, involved:
gold:
light in leaf everywhere:  fire raked and rooted, a metallic flowering,
and the finest moss,
incandescent.
 
 

In the Heart of Time

1.  Time yields
2.  and half-opens
3.  its delicate depth. (Doors
4.  that protect/shield/guard each other; that open onto each other;
marks,
5.  traces of sea. An autumn of kindling and dead leaves. In its
bottom/base:
6.  The translucent thickets of pleasure; its intimate ivies:
7.  Gold:
8.  Foliations of light: Fire that rakes root in the flowering metal,
9.  and a fine moss,
10. incandescent.
 

Notes on the literal translation:

Title. Plural’ ‘entrañas’ means ‘entrails’ and is used in expressions like ‘las entrañas de la tierra’ – ‘the bowels of the earth’. In the singular it has a more abstract, figurative meaning of ‘core’ or ‘heart’.

l.4. ‘entrar en’ means literally ‘come into’/’enter’. I’ve naturalised it to ‘open onto’.

ll.4/5. Again, these two similar words ‘rastros’ and ‘huellas’ placed next to each other.

l.6. ‘ivies’ – we’d normally go for the singular in Eng. – ‘ivy’. So would the Sp. with ‘hiedra’.

l.6 ‘espesura’ can mean ‘thickness’ or more specifically ‘thicket’/‘overgrown place’.

l.8. ‘Fire’ – the capital letter after the colon is there in the Sp.

l.8. ‘florecido’ literally, grammatically means ‘flowered’ rather than ‘flowering’.

Tom Boll, Literal Translator

Original Poem by

Coral Bracho

Translated by

Tom Boll with Katherine Pierpoint Language

Spanish

Country

Mexico