Venice masks

Saturday 16 November 2019

Repulsive being - Juan Rodolfo Wilcock

Repulsive being, you merit
Your verbal acquaintance with grief
Unlike the ants, unlike the porcupine.

You, man of words, merit
Your mnemonic acquaintance with death;
Unlike chickens, unlike the tortoise.

Con man and liar, earths vomit,
Ineffable reasoning sleazebag,
Shame of the primates, carcinogenic tongue,

Learn from pigs to be angelic,
From the jackals, from worms
Learn majesty, learn from the beetroot
To keep quiet, you, nature's spittle.

Putrescent inventor of a language
To describe your decrepitude,
You roll around in your putridness
That other beasts avoid, if not nutritious

Yet you have everything there in your mind
in self ambush with clutches of words,
scrofulous in speech, greased in dialects,

You, final arsehole on the zoological scale,
mystical carrion in the tinfoil
of your coins, sole hypocritical beast,

Vile being, you merit your own
mnemonic acquaintance with grief;
and above all you merit
your verbal acquaintance with death.

Juan Rodolfo Wilcock (1919 - 1978) Argentina
Translated by Giuliano Vivaldi
Source: Juan Rodolfo Wilcock: A Celebration and Translations

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