Manuel Iris (1983). Mexican Poet and an educator recently named Poet Laureate of the City of Cincinnati, Ohio. Iris received the National award of poetry Merida (Mexico, 2009) for his book Notebook of dreams, and the Regional award of poetry Rodulfo Figueroa for his book The disguises of fire (Mexico, 2014). Recently, three different anthologies of his poetry were published: The naked light, in Venezuela; Before the mystery, in El Salvador, and Translating silence/Traducir el silencio, published in New York, by ArtePoética Press. Manuel holds a BA in Latin American Literature from the Autonomous University of the Yucatan (Mexico), an MA in Spanish from the New Mexico State University, and a Ph.D. in Romance Languages from the University of Cincinnati.
Testigo
Está bailando tu hija, dice mi esposa y se toca la barriga.
Desde hace cinco meses soy testigo de lo que sucede ahÃ, debajo de sus manos.
Mi esposa es una casa dentro de mi casa y yo estoy fuera de mi propio corazón.
Seguro está contenta, dice
y yo serÃa capaz de renunciar a la poesÃa a cambio de tener dentro de mà a mi hija, de sentir la danza que las une a todos los principios.
Pero la opción no existe y hago lo que puedo: cocinar, solucionar antojos, escribir el poema en el que digo lo que veo desde este lado de la piel en que se encarna el misterio.
Y testimonio, con amorosa envidia que un milagro mil veces repetido es un milagro
y nada menos. Cincinnati, Ohio. Thanksgiving Day, 2017
Witness
Your daughter is dancing, says my wife touching her belly.
For the past five months I have been a witness of what happens there, under her hands.
My wife is a house inside my house and I am outside of my own heart.
I am sure she is happy, she says
and I would give up poetry in exchange for having, inside me, my daughter. For feeling that dance that bonds them to all beginnings.
But the option does not exist and I do what I can: cooking, fulfilling cravings, writing a poem in which I say what I can see from this side of the skin in which mystery embodies itself.
And I testify, with loving envy, that an everyday miracle is a miracle
and nothing less.
Cincinnati, Ohio Thanksgiving Day, 2017