Rafael Cadenas / Untitled

Untitled

by Rafael Cadenas
Translated by Guillermo Parra

The poem in order to care for poetry

Shouldn’t seem like a poem

I don’t seek perfection but truth

It interests me even though I don’t know it

And I struggle to make it known

Hopefully it’ll turn up in my folders

Respectable listeners don’t be alarmed:

You know so well how to hide your head



Translator’s note: Poem in honor of Nicanor Parra being awarded the Cervantes Prize in Spain.
El País, 22 April 2012