{"id":39446,"date":"2025-03-29T15:40:06","date_gmt":"2025-03-29T21:40:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/latinamericanliteraturetoday.org\/2025\/03\/apparent-breviary-translated-by-km-cascia\/"},"modified":"2025-03-30T16:24:53","modified_gmt":"2025-03-30T22:24:53","slug":"apparent-breviary-translated-by-km-cascia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/latinamericanliteraturetoday.org\/es\/2025\/03\/apparent-breviary-translated-by-km-cascia\/","title":{"rendered":"Apparent Breviary, translated by KM Cascia"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gast\u00f3n Fern\u00e1ndez\u2019s hermetic collection of 100 psalm-like poems marks the English-language debut of this legendary Peruvian writer of the late twentieth century. Fern\u00e1ndez lived most of his adult life in Belgium, working as an art historian. While publishing his scholarship mostly in French, he produced literary works semi-secretly in his native Spanish. Shared only with close friends, very few of these works were published in his lifetime. <\/span><\/em>Apparent Breviary<\/span> is his lone collection of poems, notable as much for their silences as what they say, their use of negative space as a counterweight to speech, and the hallucinatory effect of their sequence.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

10<\/b><\/p>\n

Yesterday I supposed
\n<\/span>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0once again <\/span> you would
\n<\/span>turn<\/span><\/p>\n

your head so we could talk <\/span> \u2014<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

(the hand loses feeling
\n<\/span>left for too long
\n<\/span>on the breast<\/span><\/p>\n


\nand desire is a short time<\/span><\/p>\n


\nIn the center\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/span>chance
\n<\/span>remains,
\n<\/span>noises by chance
\n<\/span>remade.\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span>Turn around
\n<\/span>death
\n<\/span>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0stands there
\n<\/span>does not tremble,
\n<\/span>does not move)<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

11<\/b><\/p>\n

I\u2019m not the
\n<\/span>mute one<\/span><\/p>\n

reality spills, her,
\n<\/span>on reversed eyes
\n<\/span>on the lip\u2019s back<\/span><\/p>\n

The wind.<\/span><\/p>\n

The book.\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/span>Spilling eyes.
\n<\/span>Lord,
\n<\/span>why if not\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/span>the nonetheless
\n<\/span>if hope spills over buildings <\/span> if
\n<\/span>hands grasp
\n<\/span>contain<\/span><\/p>\n

air<\/span><\/p>\n

footnote asking if
\n<\/span>clarity <\/span> \u00a0 \u00a0 is<\/span><\/p>\n

really<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

12<\/b><\/p>\n

The bird\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span>is<\/span><\/p>\n

fire,<\/span><\/p>\n

veins<\/span><\/p>\n

eyes, hollow heading
\n<\/span>upward<\/span><\/p>\n

being:\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/span>life precipitates an inert flow
\n<\/span>in weight\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span>and soul is air<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 a book
\n<\/span>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 a trace
\n<\/span>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 I am not<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 speech<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

13<\/b><\/p>\n

Right over there<\/span><\/p>\n


\nI\u2019d rather go forehead first<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The temple mount\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0is short
\nThe hair\u2019s peak <\/span> is short<\/span><\/p>\n


\nand if I speak
\n<\/span>I lose.<\/span><\/p>\n


\nAnd if I talk
\n<\/span>about the bodies\u2014<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

That darkness
\nthat house
\n<\/span>the way the birds gaze!<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

14<\/b><\/p>\n

Rage is a noun<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Either know a poet in a book\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/span>Or put
\n<\/span>one\u2019s conscience on
\n<\/span>a cloud.\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/span>Place a
\n<\/span>patriarch\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/span> on one\u2019s lips,
\n<\/span>wipe a revolution from my
\n<\/span>lips<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

(To murder man, to organize
\n<\/span>the body with the goal of understanding
\n<\/span>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 the cold<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

the weapon<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

death to the phoneme so there will be no
\n<\/span>death\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/span>and
\n<\/span>murder man
\n<\/span>no reason
\n<\/span>no prose
\n<\/span>no poem<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

15<\/b><\/p>\n

Let there be derision<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Let it be read<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Pass from magazine to face,
\n<\/span>from page to precise <\/span> \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0universal
\n<\/span>vengeance, because derision
\n<\/span>centers in the mouth
\n<\/span>between pores of
\n<\/span>letters\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/span>travels on
\n<\/span>fingers<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

promoting <\/span> \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 proposing to figure myself
\n<\/span>among the stones<\/span><\/p>\n

incorporate myself to begin again
\n<\/span>birds <\/span> \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0sex<\/span><\/p>\n

time<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/h5>\n
Translated by KM Cascia<\/span><\/h5>\n

 <\/p>\n

Forthcoming from <\/span>World Poetry Books<\/span><\/a>, 2025.<\/span><\/h6>\n
\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gast\u00f3n Fern\u00e1ndez\u2019s hermetic collection of 100 psalm-like poems marks the English-language debut of this legendary Peruvian writer of the late twentieth century. Fern\u00e1ndez lived most of his adult life in Belgium, working as an art historian. While publishing his scholarship mostly in French, he produced literary works semi-secretly in his native Spanish. Shared only with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":39014,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2893],"tags":[5254],"genre":[],"pretext":[],"section":[],"translator":[5296],"lal_author":[5294],"class_list":["post-39446","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-adelantos-de-traduccion-y-novedades-editoriales","tag-numero-33","translator-km-cascia","lal_author-gaston-fernandez-carrera"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinamericanliteraturetoday.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39446","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinamericanliteraturetoday.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinamericanliteraturetoday.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericanliteraturetoday.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericanliteraturetoday.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39446"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericanliteraturetoday.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39446\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39867,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericanliteraturetoday.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39446\/revisions\/39867"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericanliteraturetoday.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39014"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinamericanliteraturetoday.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39446"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericanliteraturetoday.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39446"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericanliteraturetoday.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39446"},{"taxonomy":"genre","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericanliteraturetoday.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/genre?post=39446"},{"taxonomy":"pretext","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericanliteraturetoday.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pretext?post=39446"},{"taxonomy":"section","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericanliteraturetoday.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/section?post=39446"},{"taxonomy":"translator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericanliteraturetoday.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/translator?post=39446"},{"taxonomy":"lal_author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericanliteraturetoday.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/lal_author?post=39446"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}