I Didn’t Know
translated from the Spanish by Jesse Lee Kercheval
I didn’t know it had rained,
and suddenly, stepping out into the street,
I found water on the leaves
and the asphalt wet and shining.
The paving stones washed clean and white
and the air light and so very clear.
Did no one see it fall?
Did no one see it?
No sabía
No sabía que había llovido
y de pronto, al salir a la calle
me encontré con el agua en las hojas
y el asfalto mojado y brillante.
Las baldosas lavadas y blancas
y liviano y clarísimo el aire.
¿Nadie la vio caer?
¿No la vio nadie?
Copyright © 2026 by Circe Maia and Jesse Lee Kercheval. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on July 6, 2026, by the Academy of American Poets.
“I first encountered Circe Maia’s poems when I was at the beach with Uruguayan friends who gave me Circe Maia: Obra poética (Rebeca Linke Editoras, 2015). The perfect gift for a poet. I read all four hundred pages, completely in love with a poetry so deceptively simple, so ultimately profound. With Maia’s blessing, I began translating her work, wanting to share the experience of reading her poems with an English-speaking audience. This led to The Invisible Bridge / El puente invisible: Selected Poems of Circe Maia, which was published by the University of Pittsburgh Press in 2015. It was a joy to return to translating Circe for this feature.”
—Jesse Lee Kercheval
Circe Maia
