London

your grey mass
turns continuous airstrip

of

blue

turns automated circular
escalator


Londres

tu masa gris
deviene aeropuerto continuo

del azul

deviene escalera mecánica
circular


With or without fruit

emaciated endometrium
discharges scant blood

and the pain the unbearable
possibly without a purpose within me

summons today the sentence
the patriarch’s worn lecture:

a woman without children
there is nothing sadder than a woman without children

female barren female without being – for them
I must be – female barren female without being

yet my forefathers ignore from what intestinal
floodlight I will myself create life
they do not know that I have no name
they do not know that with or without fruit

I engender light


Con o sin fruto

escuálido endometrio
vierte exiguas sangres

y el dolor el insoportable
tal vez sin propósito en mí

retorna hoy la sentencia
el usado discurso del patriarca:

una mujer sin hijos
no hay nada más triste que una mujer sin hijos

hembra yerma hembra sin ser – para ellos
he de ser – hembra yerma hembra sin ser

pero no sabrá mi progenie de qué luminaria
intestina he de crear yo la vida
no sabrán ellos que no tengo nombre
no sabrán que con o sin fruto
engendro la luz


In alien land

lack of sleep and steadfast clumsiness prevail:
unlimited capacity to fail

that keeps our flesh lean

permeable upon the bone

for there are two-hundred tragedies
soaking sunny days
this distant yet present affliction
an unrelenting flood where
the word    –family–    breathes
loss is repeated it renews itself     there

from this island of decreasing safeguards
thousands of kilometres away

we cushion guilt with trifling electronic
transfers


En terreno ajeno

reina la carencia de sueño y la infalible torpeza:
ilimitada capacidad para el error

que nos mantiene la carne delgada
permeable sobre los huesos

y hay doscientas tragedias
para humedecer días soleados
hay un dolor distante-presente
un aluvión sempiterno en el lugar
donde habita la palabra      –familia–
la pérdida se repite se renueva  allí

desde esta isla de menguantes garantías
a miles de kilómetros de distancia

suavizamos culpas con modestas transferencias
electrónicas

Xaviera Ringeling

Xaviera Ringeling was born in Paraguay and is a Chilean national, currently based in London. She studied Philosophy in Chile, and Environmental Studies in London where she founded the poetry group Poesía Pandémica. Her poetry collection La oblicua luz de la tarde (2019) was awarded the XXXII Premio Voces Nuevas by the Spanish publisher Torremozas, and her work appears in the anthology Leyendo Poesía in London (2019). A further poetry collection, Alba (2019), was published in London by El Ojo de la Cultura.

© Xaviera Ringeling