let yourself be bound to fire

'Illuminated memory, vague gallery where
dwells the shadow of my hope. It is not
truth that will come. It is not truth that
will not come.

She leaps with her shirt in flames
star to star.
From shade to shadow.
She is the one who dies a distant death
the one in love with the wind.

she says she does not understand about the panic of the death of love
she says she is afraid of the death of love
she says love is death is the panic
she says death is the panic is love
she says she doesn't understand

Life, life of mine, let yourself fall, let yourself feel
agony, life of mine, let yourself be bound to fire,
to raw silences, to green rocks in nighttime's
house, let yourself fall and feel this agony,
my life of mine.'



Alejandra Pizarnik (from The Tree of Diana)
tr. Zachary Jean Chartkoff

in the cage of time

en la jaula del tiempo
la dormida mira sus ojos solos
el viento le trae
la tenue respuesta de las hojas.



Alejandra Pizarnik
(Árbol de Diana)

in the cage of time
the sleeper looks into her lonely eyes
wind bringing to her
the faint response of shaking leaves.


from The Tree of Diana
tr. Zachary Jean Chartkoff

I am veiled even to myself

Nadie puede salvarme pues soy invisible aun para mí

que me llamo con tu voz. ¿En dónde estoy?

Estoy en un jardín.

Hay un jardín.

Alejandra Pizarnik

(Piedra Fundamental)

No one can save me because I am veiled even to myself,

I who calls me with your tongue: Where am I? I'm in a garden.

There is a garden.

(Fundamental Stone,
trans. Zachary Jean Chartkoff)