Honor the Ass

by Eugenio Montejo

translated from the Spanish by Kirk Nesset

Honor the ass for the star
of stupidity by which it illuminates.
For its slow petrified solitude,
so docile and useful.
Honor the ass that carries the poet
along through the world,
pricking his long ears
before each of his lines,
whatever the music.
Honor the ass, honor his box of butterflies,
where he stores the blows of God and men
and never complains.

 

Eugenio Montejo is regarded as Venezuela’s foremost living poet and is a crucial voice in South American literature. He is the author of twelve books of poetry, two books of essays, and a heteronymic volume of pieces titled El Cuaderno de Blas Coll. Montejo was awarded Venezuela’s National Prize for Literature in 1998 and received the prestigious Octavio Paz International Prize for poetry in 2005. He has also served as Venezuela’s ambassador to Portugal at various times.

Kirk Nesset's translations of poems by Montejo have appeared in The KenyonReview, The Southern Review, New England Review, Mid-American Review, and several other journals. His own poems and stories have appeared in The Pushcart Prize anthology, The Paris Review, Ploughshares, and elsewhere. He is author of Mr. Agreeable, a book of short stories (Mammoth Press), and The Stories of Raymond Carver, a nonfiction study (Ohio University Press). He teaches creative writing and literature at Allegheny College. (1/2006)