translated by Tess O’Dwyer
A letter comes and visits me. Puts its legs up in the living room. Wanders
about speechless. Suddenly it explodes and another shape appears.
Welcome! Swiftly it flees, and I see two, three, four, five, seven, five
hundred letters. Suddenly I hear the word river and water runs in another
river’s space. I repeat river two, three, four, five, seven, five hundred times,
and cold imprisons twilight. Then the twin slope of this letter trembles.
There is no bottomless return. The letter is born of life. That’s where its limit
began. I discover the world beneath.
Giannina Braschi, Asalto al tiempo, 1981. Translation Tess O’Dwyer, 2020.