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  • Far-Off Settlements
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Far-Off Settlements

Coral Bracho

Their burning, hot-branded outlines, their inner pathways, are all a psalm
sung sad and monotonous;
children run and yell
like little blips, in never-ending quiet,
demented sepia. And there are also cities
which can make this sun’s light sweet:
In their dusky golden looking-glasses, water breaks, and lights up
those gathered sweet smells and old caresses; in the warm bathing-places:
the laughter, the walls turning green now once again.
–Their temples sip from the seas.

Ghostly city limits, wavering (The caravans, the strong south winds, the
over-arching nights with no-one there, the long afternoons –
what separates all these are the untrodden sands), mirages, echoes that
cloud them,
that connect them;
a sly wet lick of salt in the corners of the mouth;
And this resonance, called forth.


Coral Bracho

from Coral Bracho: Poems / Poemas, translated by Katherine Pierpoint and Tom Boll (Enitharmon Press 2008 / Poetry Translation Centre 2010)

translated by Katherine Pierpoint and Tom Boll

Reproduced by kind permission of the author and The Poetry Translation Centre.

Tags:

archaeology Mexico ruins South American poetry

About this poem

This poem, representing Mexico, is part of The Written World – our collaboration with BBC radio to broadcast a poem from every single nation competing in London 2012.

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Coral Bracho

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