The Great Despair - Roque Dalton

   My country you do not exist
you’re my silhouette badly drawn that’s all
a word that fooled the enemy

Before I believed that you were just very small
that you never managed to have
          a South and a North
at the same time
but now I know you don’t exist
and what’s more it seems no one needs you
not a single mother can be heard speaking of you

that makes me happy
It proves I invented a country
even though I owe the trick
                 to the madhouses

I’m a little God along your coast

(I mean to say: for making me an ex-patriot,
        you’re an ex-homeland.)

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Roque Dalton (1935 - 1975) El Salvador
Translated by James Graham
Source: BOMB Magazine