Looking at Photos
translated from the Spanish by John Keene
Dagmaris walking away on the beach.
Asunción, her fan, her trim do.
Gloria two days before dying.
Roberto, pointing to nothing.
Idermis behind Oscar, after Jorge.
I so far away I almost cannot make myself out.
My brother wasting a smile.
My aunt as ugly as the word itself.
Grandmother in her best days.
Grandfather with a festive tie.
My father drunk again.
My mother like a distantly spilled perfume.
Mirando Fotos
Dagmaris alejándose en la playa.
Asunción su abanico su peinado breve.
Gloria dos días antes de morir.
Roberto señalando nada.
Idermis detrás Oscar después Jorge.
Yo tan lejos que casi no me distingo.
Mi hermano gastando una sonrisa.
Mi tía fea hasta el fondo de la palabra.
Abuela en sus mejores tiempos.
Abuelo con una corbata contenta.
Mi padre embriagado otra vez.
Mi madre como un perfume derramado distante.
Copyright © 2021 by Jesús Cos Causse and John Keene. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on September 24, 2021, by the Academy of American Poets.
“‘Looking at Photos’ / ‘Mirando Fotos,’ by the late Cuban poet Jesús Cos Causse (1945-2007), which a musician friend sent to me over a decade ago and which I only recently dared to translate, is a poem whose power derives in part from its simplicity and directness. In only two stanzas and twelve lines, Cos Causse has depicted—or perhaps, in keeping with the poem's photographic theme and imagery, captured—a family and a world. The poem’s brevity and skillful use of description and metaphor spring its emotional force, as does the progression of characters and images Cos Causse presents, culminating in the poetic speaker’s final line about the mother, which knocks me out every time I read it.”
—John Keene
Jesús Cos Causse
Jesús Cos Causse was an Afro-Cuban poet, playwright, and journalist born in Santiago de Cuba. During his lifetime, he was the vice president of the Unión Nacional de Escritores y Artistas de Cuba, as well as the president of the Taller Internácional de Poesía, which takes place during the Festival del Caribe in Santiago de Cuba. He authored many collections of poetry, including Balada de un tambor y otros poemas (Ediciones UNEAC, 1987), winner of the Julian del Casal prize. He died on August 23, 2007.