Oh!
translated by Garth Greenwell and Idra Novey
Voice of the shopping bags
whirled in the wind
like a small quarry
between its claws
to play with.
Voice of the fry shops
early,
before anybody enters,
freshly mopped, fluorescent.
¡Oh!
Voz de las bolsas de compra
revoloteadas en el viento
como una pequeña presa
entre las garras
con que jugar.
Voz de las freidurías
temprano,
antes de que nadie venga,
recién fregada, fluorescente.
Copyright © 2021 by Luis Muñoz, Garth Greenwell, and Idra Novey. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on December 21, 2021, by the Academy of American Poets.
“As often happens when I write, a confluence of elements led to this poem. One facet was listening to the voices of two images at once. I believe that significant images speak, and—to play on Rimbaud’s famous idea—that in this derangement of the senses, a poet, a writer, is to a large degree a listener. At the same time, the surprises of daily life had a role in this poem as well. The two images are ones that I’ve seen countless times since childhood in Torre del Mar, a city in the south of Spain, and yet still I experience them as absolutely new.”
—Luis Muñoz, translated by Garth Greenwell and Idra Novey
Luis Muñoz
is the author of seven books of poetry, including Vecindad (Visor Libros, 2018).