Photopoetryblog: Light-n-ing Touch / Ra-Yos

Poem: "El Quasar"* by Cecilia Vicuña**
Photos: "Light-n-ing Touch" and "Ra-Yos" by me

"Light-n-ing Touch"

 

 

"El Quasar" by Cecilia Vicuña

 

 

La luz de un sonido, o el sonido de una luz?

Era su no ser nada aún, su “not yet” lo que me atraía.

Su ser “casi” un borde, un “a punto de suceder.”

En esa calidad me mantenía, buscando una forma

antes de la forma.

 

La forma no nacía de una idea.

Era la idea desvaneciéndose.

 

Al nacer, el “no” la comprendía y aliviaba,

dejandola ser en su deshacer.

 

 

Un poema buscando su ser, el quasar no sabe buscar

sino el sueño del soñar.

 

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"The Quasar" by Cecilia Vicuña; translated by Rosa Alcalá

 

 

Light of sound, or sound of light?

 

Its not-yet-being, its "no ser nada aún" is what attracted me.

 

Being "almost" a border, an "about to happen."

 

That quality kept me looking for a form

before the form.

 

 

Form was not born from an idea.

 

It was an idea vanishing.

 

 

At its birth, the "no" understood and soothed it,

allowing it to be in its undoing.

 

 

 

 

A poem looking for its being, the quasar can only search

for the sleep of dreams.



 

"Ra-Yos"

 

*From Spit Temple (2012)

**I am writing about Cecilia Vicuña's work in my dissertation