THE MYSTERIOUS STAR
I know not where it
is, but it beckons me,
oh mysterious star of
changeless destiny!…
Its hidden blaze and
secret, unseen flame
in holy silent echo
calls my name.
And if at times I leave
the beaten track,
with an unknown force
it always pulls me back:
chimera, phoenix,
oriflamme and glory,
or love, beyond reach,
strange and transitory…
I walk forever down an
empty street
behind the fatal star
that guides my feet
but never, never, never
shows its light!
And yet its light
calls out, its silence charms;
it summons me, while
in the dark, my arms
in blind, despairing
hope drag through the night.
from the Spanish “La
estrella misteriosa”
by María Eugenia Vaz Ferreira (La isla de los cánticos, 1925)
by María Eugenia Vaz Ferreira (La isla de los cánticos, 1925)
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| Glad and Sorry Seasons by Catherine Chandler, 80 pages; 16.95USD/18.95CAD |
Build me a boat as
lofty as a thought…
then name her Star or
else Obscurity.
The whimsies of the
wind and hand must not
command a craft as
bold and fair as she!
She’ll move to the
pulsation of a heart
incarnadine with fierce
vitality;
she’ll make me strong
as in the arms of God.
Trimmed to the wind
her sails must always be!
I’m loading all my
sorrow in my boat;
with no set course, a
lotus flower, I’ll float
along the vague
horizon of the sea…
O Boat, my Soul Mate, what
uncharted land,
what unexpected truths
may lie at hand?…
This life, these
dreams, shall be the death of me…
from the Spanish “La
barca milagrosa” by Delmira Agustini
(Cantos de la mañana,
1910 )
THE SONNET OF DEATH (I)
Men put you in an icy
tomb, but I
will lower you to the
humble, sunny earth.
They did not
understand that, when I die,
we’ll share one pillow
and one dream in death.
I’ll lay you gently in
the sunlit ground,
as a mother puts her
sleeping son to bed,
the soil soft upon
your every wound,
a cradle for a child,
though he be dead.
Then I will sprinkle
rose dust with the loam,
and underneath the
moon’s blue-tinted glow,
your slight remains
shall keep. In joyous tones
I’ll sing my sweet
revenge as I turn home,
because no other woman’s
hand shall claw
so deep to wrest from
me your meagre bones!
from the Spanish “Los
sonetos de la muerte”
by Gabriela Mistral (1914 )
by Gabriela Mistral (1914 )
INHERITANCE
You told me: father
never wept;
you said: grandfather
would not wail;
men of my race have
never cried,
they’re made of steel.
And as you said these
words, your tear
fell on my lips… such
bitter gall
I’ve never tasted from
another
cup so small.
This poor, weak woman
drank, for I
to centuries of pain
relate:
but oh, my soul cannot
withstand
its crushing weight!
from the Spanish “Peso
ancestral” by Alfonsina Storni
(Irremediablemente,
1919)
REBEL
Charon: I’ll be a
scandal in your barque.
Those other souls may
pray, lament or cry
beneath your evil
patriarchal eye,
while timid spirits
murmur in the dark.
Not I. I’ll be the
lark that flits and sings.
I’ll flaunt my savage
musk, and I will beam
my bright blue lantern
on the bleak black stream,
sailing above the
crossing on my wings.
You may not like it;
and although you glare
at me with baleful
eyes, I just don’t care.
Charon, in your barque
I’ll be a scandal.
Then, when I’m cold
and weak and fight no more,
your arms will drop me
on the other shore—
vanquished—like the
captive of a Vandal.
from the Spanish
“Rebelde” by Juana de Ibarbourou
(Las lenguas de diamante, 1919)
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Catherine Chandler's poetry, translations and essays have been published in numerous journals and anthologies in North America, the U.K. and Australia. Winner of the Howard Nemerov Sonnet Award, she is the author of Lines of Flight (Able Muse Press, 2011), a collection of sonnets, This Sweet Order (White Violet Press, 2012) and two chapbooks. Glad and Sorry Seasons is her second full-length collection. Recently retired from McGill University where she lectured in the Department of Translation Studies, Catherine resides in Saint-Lazare, Quebec.
_________________________________
Catherine Chandler's poetry, translations and essays have been published in numerous journals and anthologies in North America, the U.K. and Australia. Winner of the Howard Nemerov Sonnet Award, she is the author of Lines of Flight (Able Muse Press, 2011), a collection of sonnets, This Sweet Order (White Violet Press, 2012) and two chapbooks. Glad and Sorry Seasons is her second full-length collection. Recently retired from McGill University where she lectured in the Department of Translation Studies, Catherine resides in Saint-Lazare, Quebec.
