Verónica Aranda (Madrid, 1982) is a multi-lingual poet and translator with an international presence. Not only has her own work appeared in several languages, she has also translated contemporary poetry from Portugal, Brazil, France and Nepal into Spanish. Her professional efforts extend from creative and critical journal contributions to participation in international literary events around the world. She has degrees from the University Complutense of Madrid and the Jawaharlal Nehru University of New Delhi. She has received in Spain poetry awards such as: Premio Internacional Miguel Hernández and the Adonáis accésit. Poetry Collections: Poeta en India, Tatuaje, Alfama, Postal de olvido, Cortes de luz, Senda de sauces, Café Hafa, Lluvias Continuas. Ciento un haikus, La mirada de Ulises, Inside the shell of the tortoise, a bilingual anthology Spanish-English.
Reclusión
Una mujer está asando batatas con los rescoldos de la lumbre. Por su pelo aceitado caen acordes de sitar. Cada pliegue del sari con que cubre su vientre anuncia la matriz, la reclusión.
Se puede confundir el tintineo de ajorcas con el de la llovizna. Canta y en cada nota la quietud converge en la tahona que olÃa a albaricoques. Canta y fragmenta vértice o frontera.
La noche es una herida de colmillos de mono y empieza a supurar.
Confinement
A woman is roasting sweet potatoes in the embers of the fire. Sounds of the sitar fall through her oiled hair. Each fold of the sari covering her belly announces her womb, her confinement.
How easy to confuse a tinkling anklet with the dripping rain. With every note she sings serenity, an echo to the apricot smells of the bakery. She sings and cracks vertex and boundary.
The night is a gnawed gash from a monkey maw, and it festers. Translated by Claudia Routon
Feria del camello (Pushkar)
Aquella soledad de los niños acróbatas, que doblaban su cuerpo en el instante que doblaban la infancia, descalzos por caminos polvorientos con los titirimundi y los tratantes, de feria en feria; el vértigo, el trapecio, unos frágiles miembros desnutridos girados en posturas imposibles; sostener en el aire, entre poleas, un porvenir hostil donde se rompe la magia de los circos.
The Camel Fair (Pushkar)
How lonely the child acrobats who buckled their body the instant they buckled their childhood, no shoes on those dusty roads with the puppeteers and the dealers, from fair to fair; vertigo, trapeze, fragile malnourished limbs twisted in impossible positions; suspending in the air, between pulleys, a hostile future ready to break the magic of the circus.
Translated by Claudia Routon