Poems

Hands in the Water of the Mind

Notes

This was the second Huerta poem that the workshop worked on with guest translator Adam Feinstein. The second stanza offered us the most discussion (as we tried to finish the translation in time). We quickly decided to emphasise the address (‘Come, come closer now’) but struggled to find a mode of movement appropriate to an anenome, a jellyfish, a criminal and a saint. The bridge translation suggested ‘sliding’ and we considered various plays on ‘slipperiness’ but didn’t want the judgemental overtones to decide the matter between ‘criminal’ and ‘saint’. We finally decided to render this elusive phrase as ‘elusive as / ...’

Edward Doegar, Commissioning Editor