Looking for
Trouble

The night of my first cell meeting it was pouring rain
Four or five characters out of the world of Goya
were very impressed with the way I dripped
Everyone there seemed somewhat bored
perhaps from the persecution and the daily nightmares of torture.

These somewhat hoarse-sounding organizers of labor unions
and strikes told me I'd have to
find a pseudonym
that I was going to have to pay five pesos a month
that we had to agree to do this every Wednesday
and how were my studies going
and for today we were going to read a pamphlet by Lenin
and that it wasn't necessary to say "comrade" every minute.

When we broke up the rain had stopped
Mother scolded me for coming home late.

--- Richard Schaaf
Translator

---

Buscándome Líos
Roque Dalton
1935 - 1975

La noche de mi primera reunión de célula llovía
mi manera de chorrear me muy aplaudida por cuatro
o cinco personajes del dominio de Goya
todo el mundo ahí parecía levemente aburrido
tal vez da la persecución y hasta de la tortura diariamente soñada.

Fundadores de confederaciones y de huelgas mostraban
cierta ronquera y me dijeron que debía
escoger un seudónimo
que me iba a tocar pagar cinco pesos al mes
que quedábamos en que todos los miercoles
y que cómo iban mis estudios
y que por hoy íbamos a leer un folleto de Lenin
y que no era necesario decir a cada momento camarada.

Cuando salimos no llovía mas
mi madre me riñó por llegar tarde a casa.

 

--- From 20th Century Latin American Poetry
A Bilingual Anthology
©1996 University of Texas Press