There’s a place - José Luis Appleyard

There’s a place in the world where I live

small and unique,

a place of my own,

a piece of land, redolent of wood,

with people like me,

in a captive heart,

diminutive, bleeding and sad.

A piece of earth, few men,

and a steel scimitar like a river.

I am in it, I’m part of that

miniscule part of the world. I have friends

who share time and bleed it dry,

slowly, unhurried, since long ago.

Life is very simple

all that’s needed

is faithful compliance with the rites:

killing the truth every morning

and leaving it die every Sunday.

He who knows the key, can live

in this place sweetly and tranquilly.

Words maintain the fluidity

of their form, round and without cracks,

but all that they enclose as language

on every lip gives a distinct flavor.

The grammar is tense, different

from any other. Only the sound

of the words has a semblance

to a language which I might call mine.

There are clear, transparent synonyms:

to be free is to vegetate indifferently,

to steal is to work, love is hatred,

and to live is to die all dismantled.

Loneliness is called company

and to betray is to be faithful to one's friends.

Novelty, old age. Everything new

has an obscure patina of antique.

There is a place in the world where l live

small and unique.

A place of my own,

---

José Luis Appleyard (1927 - 1998) Paraguay

Translated by Ronald Haladyna

Source: Exotic Territory: A Bilingual Anthology of Contemporary Paraguayan Poetry, by Ronald Haladyna, Trafford Publishing, 2011