Victor Rodriguez Nunez [Cuba]

4
 
between two hummingbirds
                                              oscillating in the breeze
beneath the tame sunflower light
nightburned
in the intense split
of the pitcher we left outside
shyness perfumes
                             with basil cunning
the horizon will fail
but the light undresses in the maples
 
a hummingbird is allayed
                                          on the steel curve
behind its stirring the sun sets
restores the line
the stroke kandinsky could not finish
the other hummingbird at last vanishes
with its clear tremble
a cross in charcoal unsound sanity
a foreshortening atonal
                                       being flaps its wings
 
 
 
7
 
you are guided by the prints
                                              of an ambercolored rabbit
certainty is scared
lacks self-confidence
not here or on another moon its station
its watery den
and doubt is impulse
                                  sure of itself
like an endemic species
it does not end with the coming or going
 
reason’s angel
                        intrepid dread
shining the scar
wind scored on shadow
festered the way toward the snow
in the lack of sleep rises
the apple falling from the nothingness
does not hide its secret
life is numeral
                       a nighttime rabbit
 
 
 
 
12
                                  
 
with woodworker dreams
                                         you stud the dawn
the knotty plank its postures
there is little clarity but you can feel your way
through the brilliance of things
                                                  the moon unmirrored
the salmon leap to the inner thigh
and its silver holds fast to this silence
the slipup the moderation
                                           struggle to give you shape
 
with your breathlessness the petals fall
at the feet of the pitcher
where birds swim turtles flutter about
everything happens in the middle of the table
a dovetailed elm
                           and its infinite pear
ripened suddenly in varnish
the silence is filled with colors
no contradictions
and the morning smells faintly of madness
 
 
(from “el cuaderno de la rata almizclera” / “the muskrat’s notebook”)
 
 
(translated by Katherine M. Hedeen)
 
 

 
Author’s Bionote:
 
*Víctor Rodríguez Núñez (Havana, Cuba, 1955) is a poet, journalist, essayist, translator, and university professor. He is one of Cuba’s most outstanding and celebrated contemporary writers, with over one hundred editions of his poetry published throughout the world. He has been the recipient of major awards in the Spanish-speaking region, including Spain’s coveted Loewe Prize. His selected poems have been translated into nineteen languages, and he has read his poetry in more than fifty countries. He is a prolific editor, essayist, and literary critic, with numerous books to his credit. He has translated renowned poets from both English and Spanish. He divides his time between Gambier, Ohio, where he is Professor Emeritus of Spanish at Kenyon College, and Havana, Cuba: www.victorrodrigueznunez.com
 
(Photo: Daniel Mordzinski, 2024)
 

 
Translator’s Bionote:
 
*Katherine M. Hedeen is an award-winning translator of Latin American poetry. She has translated over thirty books of some of the most respected voices from the region into English. Her work has been a finalist for both the Best Translated Book Award and the National Translation Award. She is a recipient of the University of Wisconsin’s inaugural Poetry in Translation Prize, two NEA Translation Grants, and a PEN Translates award in the UK. She is an editor for the transnational and translational press, Action Books. She resides in Ohio, where she is Professor of Spanish at Kenyon College, and Havana, Cuba: www.katherinemhedeen.com