Skip to content
LALT-Iso-Black
  • menu
  • English
  • Español
Issue 2
Uncategorized

When Fear is Dream's Excuse

  • by Yanira Marimón
Print Friendly, PDF & Email
  • April, 2017

For A. Arrufat and the narrow parameter in which he dreams

Fear of the trite word
incapable of naming purity, everyday chaos,
taunts from another time I thought better
but rotten as well, torn apart.
Fear of fleeing fear,
of being left alone in the hills, tumultuous
orphan childhood without memory.
Fear of the frost in my eyes when sunset announces itself
fear of mother and her brief existence on this earth,
the absence of light and of mother.
Fear of improbable happiness, a ghost delighting in silences
God fails to protect because everything is supposed to be mine.
Fear of death’s calloused hands
its face staring from mirrors
the mocking mask of its years, its flights and arguments.
Fear of becoming someone else, of that poem where
I name and leave myself,
of innocence dressed in rags
the dust of a city collapsing in my hands

with neither howls
laments
nor common sense.

Fear of the morning mist
when autumn leaves fall
and others pretend to be small evasive gods,
from that place where we rest our heads,
the only place that is absolutely free
where night by night we exorcize (as if they belong to us)
every one of our dreams.

 

Translated by Margaret Randall

Originally published in World Literature Today 89, no. 5 (September 2015).

Graffiti in Havana, Cuba. Photo by Karim Amar.
  • Yanira Marimón

Yanira Marimón (b. 1971, Matanzas) writes poetry and prose. Among her recent titles are the poetry collection La sombra infinita de los vencidos (2005) and a novel, Donde van a morir las mariposas (2006).

  • Margaret Randall

Photo: Juan Pérez

Margaret Randall (b. 1936, New York) lived in Cuba from 1969 to 1980. In 1970 and 2011 she was a judge of the Casa de las Américas literary contest. Her books include To Change the World: My Years in Cuba (2009) and Haydée Santamaría, Cuban Revolutionary: She Led by Transgression, just out from Duke University Press.

PrevPrevious“Sunbaked Shell” by Leymen Pérez
Next“Divided Equally” by Laura Ruiz MontesNext
RELATED POSTS

This Side of Paradise: José Donoso at Princeton

By Antonio Díaz Oliva

I have never asked why, but we call my grandmother, my maternal grandmother, “Nana”. Her real name is María Angélica, but we have always said it this way: “Nana”, with…

Ida Vitale or the Brilliances of the Intellectual Subject

By Katherine M. Hedeen, Víctor Rodríguez Núñez

In her 2001 selection of Latin American women poets, Idea Vilariño complained that anthologies of Spanish American poetry have “utterly ignored writing by women,” for far too long and that…

On Mónica Ojeda

By Daniela Alcívar Bellolio, Abril Altamirano, Damián De la Torre Ayora and Eduardo Varas Carvajal

Footer Logo

University of Oklahoma
780 Van Vleet Oval
Kaufman Hall, Room 105
Norman, OK 73019-4037

  • Accessibility
  • Sustainability
  • HIPAA
  • OU Job Search
  • Policies
  • Legal Notices
  • Copyright
  • Resources & Offices
Updated 06/27/2024 12:00:00
Facebook-f X-twitter Instagram Envelope
Latin American Literature Today Logo big width
MAGAZINE

Current Issue

Book Reviews

Back Issues

Author Index

Translator Index

PUBLISH IN LALT

Publication Guidelines

Guidelines for Translators

LALT AND WLT

Get Involved

Student Opportunities

GET TO KNOW US

About LALT

LALT Team

Mission

Editorial Board

LALT BLOG
OUR DONORS
Subscribe
  • email
LALT Logo SVG white letters mustard background

Subscriptions

Subscribe to our mailing list.