is
all
this long-sought volume has to show,
except for the one smaller leaflaid in
as afterthought, printed apparently
on paper more enduring: the errata,
noted without apologies as follows:
For
"inessential parts"
read
"in essential parts".
For
"god"
read
"goad".
For
"construction" read "constriction".
For
"near"
read
"fear".
For
"father"
read
"farther".
Settling now for anything, I pocket it.
I have five minutes left to make the door.
Jorge Teillier
AFTERNOON IN AUTOMOBILE
We abandon the village
after drinking something in the hotel facing the square.
We choose the oldest road. We drive slowly
past untilled fields, trees disfigured
by
the rasp of fire. We go onto an abandoned estate
to look for wild apples.
Then, someone says: "In the station there was a girl
who looked like I don't remember who."
Someone else starts to sing.
But when the stars come out to gaze at us
with their sad sheep's watery eyes
no one speaks or sings.
The old engine rattles, the wind hits us in the face,
one friend hands out the bread and wine. Always
that is good.
And it's good to want this to go on forever,
as we believe
go on the night, the wind, the dark roads of the sky.
Jor
my
brother Ivan
Translated from the Spanish by Carolyne Wright
