Eugenio Montejo
House
In the depths of a woman's body
a house is constructed
amidst murmurs and pauses.
There are shadows of stones to collect,
fragile scaffolds, in this act
of imitating the sparrow.
Above all when she sleeps,
smiling in dreaming—
to survey her completely
don't wake her up;
trace the slope of her hips,
the sweep of her hands.
Along the dunes containing her dream,
those turbulent settings,
high walls are raised
to keep out the rain, and the wind,
year after year.
A gesture sometimes informs a wall;
from a whisper a window is born;
and after wandering we dismount at the door
and tie up the horse.
In the depths of her body the house
awaits, the table fitted with plain
words for living, or for dying perhaps,
no one can say—
nobody who enters ever leaves.
—Translated from the Spanish by Kirk Nesset