Water of Jellyfish
by Coral Bracho
Water of jellyfish,
milky, snaking water
of ever-changing shapes; glossy water-flesh; melting
into its lovely surroundings. Water - sumptuous waters
receding, languid
and layered into calm. Water,
water silken, dusky, dense as lead - mercurial;
floating free, idling. The seaweedin there, sparkling, in pleasure's very breast. The seaweed, crests a-bubbling;
- above the over-arching silence, above the long spits
of basalt rock; the water-weed, its familiar caresses,
its gentle flux. Water of light, of fish; the breeze, the
agatespilling its light. The shy elk flicker like flame -
through the cotton-silk trees, through the shoals
of little fisha flame is pulsing,
water slinking, lynx-like; water of bream (jasper's
sudden reds and browns).Such glory here,
among the jellyfish medusas.
- Parted lips of coastline, the breeze's gentle
movements,lulling softly, settling into crystals, amphibious,
lubricious - water, silken and
magnetic; poised. Water, coasting - lascivious radiance
wading, oily,
over crumbling basalt. Light crawls, opal,
through its own inner flames. - Water
of jellyfish.
Sweet fresh-water shine;
water leaving no traces; dense,
mercurial
white as steel, parting round the granite stacks,its flashes of minnows; secretive, smooth. - Water alive,
and rolling; a bronze sun vaulting in close;
- liquid minerals, spurting. Water of jellyfish, a water to
feeldissolving into itself
into a slick of indigo, quivering honeycombs. Long
strands of water, sea-lettuce,the catfish nibbling
in its rich, streaming bed, whose light nectars
form a golden pond, liminal. Weightless water,
air inside amber,
- a chrism of light, full of grace; the high tide a tiger,
below a wash of shadow. Water at the edge, water-eel,
swallowing itself,
its great journey by night -
along these matrices of silk, through the
sea-sage. - Water
rich with cod. Heavy water (that calm pleasure,
warm; the way it shimmers) -
Water's edge -
its smooth changes, its delight in itself,
its own seductive rise and fall. Water,
silken, receding, layered
into languid calm. Water, water; its gentle stroke
- water of the otter, the fish. Water
of jellyfish,
milky, snaking; water,
The literal translation of this poem was made by Tom Boll
The final translated version of the poem is by Katherine Pierpoint
Notes
From El ser que va a morir [The Being that is Going to Die] (1981).
© Poetry Translation Centre 2004-2010
Karuna says:
Never have I read something so sensual. Each word makes each of my senses dance-and at the same time! So I'm not sure if I'm tasting,seeing,hearing or feeling. My sense are at their confused best but what a delightful state to be in.
katie says:
wow cool poem its long! .......... bravo!
Sallie Lupton Jennings says:
This is a poet of immense visual and tactile imagination. We never hear, smell or taste the water, but what a feast for our eyes and skin sense of water in all its shifting shapes , moods and colors, its settings and its inhabitants.
Brava!