Selected Poems of Juan Gelman
 translated by Hardie St. Martin

Strike At The Construction Site

Neither the strong  noon wine
they’d drink out in the wind.
Nor the ladder, the sun, the air.
Silence stands on the scaffolding.

The men looked at one another patiently
from the heart straight to the bone.
They touched death further down.
0And they made up their minds.

Maybe María’ll cry over these things
and she’ll do it secretly.
She’ll have to dry her cheeks with the night.
Her man won’t know it, one less worry for him.

The man will stare at his quiet hands,
he’ll either say I have or I don’t have.

He’ll grow from his balls on up,
made pure once again.

Pure now that there’s wine in his brother,
small pieces of bread in Pedro’s eyes.
And on the strength of this
the child in his heart comes back again.

And on the strength of this
the silence on the scaffolding
takes its hat off to him.

Selected Poems of Juan Gelman
 translated by Hardie St. Martin

I Sit Here Like an Invalid

I sit here like an invalid in the desert of my desire for you

I’ve grown used to sipping the night slowly, knowing
you’re in it somewhere filling it with dreams.

The night wind whips the stars flickering in my hands,
broken-hearted widows of your hair, still unreconciled.

The birds you planted in my heart are stirring and
sometimes with a knife’s cold blade
I’d offer them the freedom they demand to go back to you.

And yet I can’t.  You’re so much a part of me, so much alive in me
that if I died, my death would kill you.

Selected Poems of Juan Gelman
 translated by Hardie St. Martin

Watching People Walk Along

Watching people walk along, put on a suit,
a hat, an expression and a smile,
watching them bent over their plates eating patiently,
work hard, run, suffer, cringe in pain,
all just for a little peace and happiness,
watching people, I say it’s hardly fair
to punish their bones and their hopes
or distort their songs or darken their day,
yes, watching
people weep in the most hidden corners
of the soul and still be able
to laugh and walk with dignity,
watching people, well, watching them
have children and hope and always
believe things will get better
and seeing them fight to stay alive,
I tell them,
it’s beautiful to walk along with you
to discover the source of new things,
to get at the root of happiness,
to bring the future in on our backs, to address
time on familiar terms and know
we’ll end up finding lasting happiness,
I tell them, it’s beautiful, what a great mystery
to live treated like dirt
yet sing and laugh,
how strange!