ustxtxb_obs_1987_01_23_50_00019-00000_000.pdf

Ilt\\ ….. ,. “.. ..S. ,.,…… s k :,’,. ..:, si ,’, . $’ \\ The names o a f things, theie roperties, to do with at we understamii or somehow t beaks of do s would open against the sky. Some other, so other name, forhiat woman with her heavy boo cells, for the cloudy winter, for silen set g distances, for noise, for fire, for all that s glows in its properties. For the doves colombas palomas and-in-French. I wish they had other names, knowing they exist ; be a mute and know them, be blind and name them. Other dissonant or inert names, the noiseless weaponry that I watch flying behind and beyond my windows. Translated by Maureen Ahern and Mary Crow The invisible machine of war I never described one has to say gold rifle bayonet and continue to the other side after the explosions mention the attackers v s those that flee through plazas alleys sewers gunpowder factories men crushed under foot some bloody word for so many triggers for the hand that breaks necks destroys scatters to the winds skulls of children before our gentle peace. I cannot find another word to name the exact bullet that keenly disarms the tree of life. Translated by David Tipton ti u 41 Two Poems Cecilia Bustamante is a Peruvian journalist, art critic, and poet who now lives in Austin. She has translathd into Spanish the work of Robert Lowell, Denise Levertov, Robert Graves, and Allen Ginsberg. “The names of things” and “Facts” are reprinted from Pangaea, An Anthology of the International Texas Poetry Series, 1982-1985, published by the Open Theatre, Austin, 1985: THE TEXAS OBSERVER 19