Prayer
by David Huerta
Lord, save this moment.
There's nothing outlandish or
miraculous about it, unless it holds
a hint of immortality, a breath
of salvation. It looks like
any number of other moments...
But it's here now among us:
it casts its yellow light and swells
like the sun or like flaming lemons
- and tastes of the sea, of loved hands
and smells like a street in Paris
where we were happy. Save it
in your memory or deliver it
into the light that sets
on this page,
barely touching it.
The literal translation of this poem was made by Jamie McKendrick
The final translated version of the poem is by Jamie McKendrick
Listen to a reading of this poem in English and the original language on the player below or download it to keep (MP3).
Other poems
Other Poems
© Poetry Translation Centre 2004-2013
Alan Feldman says:
Huerta has captured that sense of fleeting happiness most of us must feel at moments; we do a split-second inventory of what makes us happy, and realize, almost simultaneously, that it is fleeting: "we were happy," he says of bygone times in Paris. Easy to say "remember this moment" but more realistic, and more hopeful, to ask that the moment be delivered "into the light," a light which itself is waning, like a sunset. Lovely translation too. I'd merely make one suggestion: perhaps "into the light that is setting now/ on this page." "Sets" is also colloquial for "sits" "sits down" but what's needed, I think, is to convey that he means "sets" as in "sunset" so maybe a verb that suggests the ongoing progression of a sunset, as in "the sun that is setting now"? Thanks for sharing this poem!
YANIRA says:
i think its a wonderful poem and i like the title of it too thats what got my attention to read it and i thought it was a nice poem :)