I (the apple 1)
III (the orange)
XIV (the grapefruit)
XVIII (the cherries)
XX (the chestnuts 1)
I
(the apple 1)
By way of apples
– deliciously –
I meet desire
discover well-being
and that larva of death
folded in the midst of splendor.
To be as the apple
involves
all fault
but the proposition thrills.
The apple is brilliant
and dangerous:
one alone can flame an orchard.
To be as the apple
is to be – at the high dance of day –
all red satin and diamonds
and on a gloved finger wear
a ring of dusk.
I
(la manzana 1)
Por las manzanas
– deliciosamente –
conozco el deseo
descubro la salud
y esa larva de muerte
que se lleva en medio del esplendor.
Ser como la manzana
implica
todas las culpas
pero es excitante la propuesta.
La manzana es brillante
y peligrosa:
una sola puede incendiar un huerto.
Ser como la manzana
es estar – en la alta fiesta del día –
toda de raso rojo y diamantes
y llevar en el índice enguantado
un anillo de sombra.
III
(the orange)
A setting sun rests
on the platter where
the orange dessert shines.
Blazing slices
and cinders of what dark
round my mouth:
they’re found in woods at midnight
with pleasure’s thieves
an acidic apparition
and terror that from a distance hounds.
The slices and my tongue know more than I.
III
(la naranja)
Yace un sol poniente
en la fuente donde brilla
la naranja del postre.
Los gajos encendidos
y la ceniza de lo oscuro
dan pasos en mi boca:
se encuentran en un bosque a medianoche
con los salteadores del placer
y una ácida aparición
y un terror que los sigue desde lejos.
Los gajos y mi lengua saben más que yo.
XIV
(the grapefruit)
Identification:
a grapefruit is a glowing cloak
of dense yellow chrome
watered down with milk
that forms or holds:
nine sizable slices of minuscule
translucent drops,
a cup of summer liquid,
a flush of alcohol acidulated,
a pinch of honey or benevolence,
three grams of aloe somberly accused.
Temperament:
seemingly good-natured:
endures bitter dreams more philosophic
than sensual
sustained by an indifference
to sour or sweet.
References:
noticed ever centered and luminous
looking like a lamp
like a book golden
full with illustrations
wherein allegories nest hidden.
XIV
(el pomelo)
Identificación:
un pomelo es una capa brillante
de espeso amarillo cromo
diluído con leche
que configura o contiene:
nueve gajos gigantes de menudas gotas
semitransparentes,
una taza de verano líquido,
una llamarada de acidulado alcohol,
una pizca de miel o benevolencia;
tres gramos de acíbar seriamente acusados.
Temperamento:
plácido aparente:
soporta sueños amargos más filosóficos
que sensuales
sostenidos por una indiferencia
entre agria y dulce.
Referencias:
lo han visto siempre sereno y luminoso
parecido a una lámpara
parecido a un libro dorado
lleno de láminas
donde anidan secretas alegorías.
XVIII
(the cherries)
for Marosa Di Giorgio
Of cherries I keep her image
her fervent paint
the living alcove
of a still life
the vibrant call of distillers.
I keep her image safeguarded by the glass.
From ornamented jars
from shaded halls
from the credenza cabinet displays
they look after her small breasts purple prisoner
in restraint and rapture.
Guests no longer drink cherry liqueur.
Guests are not who they used to be.
The aunts and the friends of the aunts
each hold a cordial and it’s empty.
XVIII
(las guindas)
a Marosa Di Giorgio
De las guindas guardo su retrato
su pintura ardiente
el rincón vivo
de una naturaleza muerta
su vibrante vocación de licoristas.
Guardo su retrato protegido por el vidrio.
Desde los frascos labrados
desde las sombreadas salas
desde los aparadores con cristales
custodian sus pequeños senos de púrpura prisionera
en recato y arrobamiento.
Las visitas no beben ya guindado.
Las visitas no son visitas.
Las tías y las amigas de las tías
tienen en la mano una copita vacía.
XX
(the chestnuts 1)
Supposing that the tree of flavor
is an apparition or dream
– that tree would astound landscapes undone –
Chestnuts are comparable to memory
maturing among mysterious chocolate
feminine yam
and a suspect hint of nut
on a street in Paris
unassumingly.
Over a small smooth stove they’re roasted
the obscure enfolded medieval fruits.
And it’s cold.
XX
(las castañas 1)
Suponiendo que el árbol del sabor
fuera una aparición o un sueño
– ese árbol asombraría indefinidos paisajes –
Las castañas están a la altura del recuerdo
madurando entre el misterioso chocolate
la femenina batata
y un toque suspicaz a nueces
en una calle de París
humildemente.
Sobre un suave hornillo se asan
los oscuros encerados frutos medievales.
Y hace frío.
La iden(dad de ciertas frutas. Montevideo: Editorial Arca. 1983.
Selection from The Identity of Certain Fruits by Amanda Berenguer. In Materia Prima: Selected Poems by Amanda Berenguer. Edited by Kristen Dykstra and Kent Johnson. New York, NY: Ugly Duckling Press, 2018. Forthcoming.
Amanda Berenguer (1921-2010) was one of the most important and prolific Uruguayan writers of the last century. Like many contemporaries who lived through several dictatorships, Berenguer’s poetry often represents language and meaning under siege at the same time that she attempts to maintain its political efficacy. However, The Identity of Certain Fruits breaks this pattern by engaging the possibility of meaning through a deep sense of pleasure in the things that surround us and the language that speaks to those things. In this case, those things are fruit, and what Berenguer represents is their sensual audacity.
Anna Deeny Morales is a dramatist, translator of poetry, and literary critic. Original works for contemporary dance, theater, and opera include La straniera (1997); Tela di Ragno (1999–2002); Cecilia Valdés (2018); and La Paloma at the Wall (2019). Her one-act opera libretto, ¡ZAVALA-ZAVALA!: an opera in v cuts, recently commissioned by the University of North Carolina, Charlotte, and composer Brian Arreola, will debut in 2021. A 2018 National Endowment for the Arts recipient for the translation of Tala by Gabriela Mistral, Deeny Morales has translated works by Raúl Zurita, Mercedes Roffé, Alejandra Pizarnik, Nicanor Parra, Amanda Berenguer, Malú Urriola, and Marosa di Giorgio, among others. She received a PhD from the University of California, Berkeley, and has taught at Harvard University and Dartmouth College. She currently teaches at Georgetown University, and her book manuscript, Other Solitudes, considers transamerican dialogues on consciousness and poetry throughout the last century.