Yolanda Pantin [Venezuela]

 

Fallen Angel II
 
The woman with straight hair
drawn back
on her neck
lightly shaded
in blue
like her eyes
occupies
the centre of the photo
in the symmetrical composition
Behind her to her left
an Angel
detached from her shoulder
looks up to heaven
with his wings folded
There is no stain on his airy state
his pure spirit
although
from the pink shell of his ear
doubt rises, like fire.
 
(Translated by Rowena Hill)
 
 
Poem of the Two Heads
 
This is the poem of the two heads
 
Sun
Severed Neck
was resting on the grass
 
Miss Haughty Head
set out for the South Pole
 
Sun
Severed Neck
let an insect
flutter al his lips
 
and slept for instant
 
Miss Haughty Head
tired from her journey
tugged at her lover’s feet
 
They chattered for a long time
 
One storm followed another
but these heads had a lot to say to each other
 
Sun
Severed Neck
jumped on to the snow
 
and placed his lips
on the swollen mouth
that was boiling
 
over a cauldron of words
 
They told each other their life stories
 
This was all they had to tell each other
their lives their loves
 
Night found them
under a lump of ice
 
-the wind was wailing in the white landscape-
 
‘It’s a portent’
 
said Sun
Severed Neck
 
‘Take no notice’
 
Miss Haughty Head
was a panic
 
and their ears collided in a long embrace
 
(Translated by Rowena Hill)
 
 
There Are Three Vultures
 
Watch the vultures fly they're horrible
There they are on the cornice of the other building
While I serve the coffee the black birds
have landed on the satellite dish or you might say the watchtower/
Each one maintains its own balance that belongs to no other
 
            Who are they eating?
 
Now they fly motionless without a sound
There are three vultures I've seen it all before
a mother and two of her little ones
or two lovers and their shadow
 
(Translated by Steven F. White)
 

  
Glacier Perito Moreno
 
The poem fell like a deafening block of ice.
 
Sparse-leaved shrubs grow here
and sheep crop
 
with small shifts forward;
 
they don`t seem to move, yet advance
across the ground.
 
I thought I might come close to wisdom,
facing that landscape,
 
a whim as infantile
as picking your nose
 
until it bleeds.
 
It was a moment of poetic
stupefaction: a lump of cold rearing up
 
seventy metres above us.
 
In front of the glacier,
we sought the certainty of powerlessness.
 
Not because we were nothing,
but that the noise of the mass as it plunged
 
resounded
like an open heart.
 
(Translated by Ruth Fainlight)
 
 

Author’s Bionote:
 
*Yolanda Pantin: Born 1954 in Caracas, Venezuela, where she lives. She is a poet, essayist, and writer. She studied Literature at the Andrés Bello Catholic University. She has published the poetry collections: “Casa o Lobo”, 1981¸”Correo del Corazón”, 1985; “La Canción Fría”, 1989; “Poemas del Escritor”, 1989; “El Cielo de París”, 1989; “Los Bajos Sentimientos”, 1993; “La Quietud”, 1998; “La Épica del padre”, 2002; “Poemas Huérfanos”, 2002; “El Hueso Pélvico”, 2002; “Epica del padre”, 2002; País, 2007; “21 caballos”, 2011; “Bellas Ficciones”, 2016; 2007; “Lo que hace el tiempo”, 2017; “País, Poesía Reunida 1981-2011”, 2014; “El dragón protegido”, 2021; “Un año y unos meses”, 2022.  Awards: Premio Fundarte de Poesía, 1989; Guggenheim Fellow, 2004; Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center residency, Premio de Poesía “Poetas del Mundo Latino Víctor Sandoval”, Aguascalientes, México; XVII Premio Casa de América de Poesía Americana, Madrid.