Yamanocuchi’s Poems — (1968)

Selected Poems of Juan Gelman
translated by Hardie St. Martin

IV:  The sun on the day’s crest

the sun on the day’s crest gilds
points of land flags barrier reefs someone
sitting at the roadside inspects
his feet

tied down to the road he’s thinks
of kings swallowed up by time he sticks
a yellowed fingernail
into the sole of his right foot digs out

the tiny splinter
that made him bleed
and
feel the road under him he sniffs

at the hard sharp object still warm
his body would not accept it
dark covered with blood
and he’s silent out there in the sun

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