El Buen Muñeco The Good Doll

El Buen Muñeco

de niño los viejos me compraron un Porfiao. véase un muñeco vacío
de lenguaje,
que lleva el contrapeso en la base y que golpeado con fuerza hacia cualquier 
dirección, siempre termina por estar derecho.
 
tenía la sonrisa atroz y la mirada hueca.
 
pasé largas horas sentado
tratando de tumbarlo, pero nunca lo lograba. por más que en la cabeza lo
golpeé
el rojo muñecón se la agenció para quedar derecho.
 
el juego me volvió el Gran Porfiao:
véase un sujeto vacío de lenguaje,
que lleva el contrapeso entre las piernas y que, golpeado con fuerza hacia
cualquier dirección, siempre termina por estar derecho.
 
esto no le agrada a los mayores,
tan alegres y enfocados en el arte de mandar.
 
soy para tu bien el Buen Muñeco.
si quieres comprobar cómo me enderezo
 
golpea mi cabeza.
 

The Good Doll

when I was small the grown-ups bought me a roly-poly doll.
a doll with no language,
weighted at the base, that
when struck from any direction,
always ends upright.
with a sinister smile and a vacant stare.
 
I spent hours
trying to knock him down, but I never managed it.
however hard I hit his head
that fat red doll conspired
to right himself.
 
that game turned me into a big roly-poly doll:
a subject with no language,
weighted between the legs that,
when struck from any direction,
always ends upright.
 
This displeases the adults,
so happy and focussed on the art of giving orders.
 
for you I'll be the Good Doll.
if you want to see how I right myself
hit me in the head.
 

The Good Doll

The Good Doll
child the olds me bought a roly-poly doll. see a doll empty of
language,
that carries the counter-weight in the base and that hit with force towards whatever
direction, always ends for be right.
 
had the atrocious smile and the look hole.
 
I spent long hours sat
trying to knock down him, but never I managed it. for more that in the head it
I hit
the red doll it did arrange stay right.
 
the game made me the Big Roly-poly Doll:
see a subject empty of language,
that carries the counter-weight between the legs and that, hit with force towards
whatever direction, always ends for be right.
 
this no please to the elders,
so happy and focused in the art of ordering.
 
I am for you the Good Doll.
if you want to try how I right myself
 
hit my head.
 

This deceptively simple poem carries a big emotional punch that is menacing, despairing and sad all at the same time. we looked up ‘roly-poly doll’ on Wikipedia and found that it was indeed the doll we’d all imagined that most of us remembered from childhood.

Again, Serafina’s literal version was a word-for-word translation that was a pleasure to translate. Most of the time, we simply turned to the colloquial english version, such as changing ‘the olds’ to ‘the grown-ups’. We moved away from the literal in the second half of the first stanza with ‘that fat red doll conspired’ which chimes with the Spanish ‘siempre termina por estar derecho’, with the punchy four stressed single syllables of ‘that fat red doll’ echoing the force of the original.

The second stanza is very poignant as the poet confesses that the game has turned him ‘into a big roly-poly doll… // weighted between the legs’ that ‘always ends upright’ however hard he’s struck. But his strategy ‘displeases the adults’. And the final three lines find him transformed into a ‘Good Doll’, the proof of which is demonstrated by his sad request to ‘hit me in the head’.

Sarah Maguire, Workshop Facilitator

Original Poem by

Oscar Cruz

Translated by

Serafina Vick with The Poetry Translation Workshop Language

Spanish

Country

Cuba