Category Archives: Poetry

To Mrs. Reynolds’ Cat

by John Keats (1795-1821)

Cat! who hast pass’d thy grand climacteric,
   How many mice and rats hast in thy days
   Destroy’d? How many tit bits stolen? Gaze
With those bright languid segments green, and prick
Those velvet ears – but pr’ythee do not stick
   Thy latent talons in me – and upraise
   Thy gentle mew – and tell me all thy frays,
Of fish and mice, and rats and tender chick.
Nay, look not down, nor lick thy dainty wrists –
   For all thy wheezy asthma – and for all
Thy tail’s tip is nick’d off – and though the fists
   Of many a maid have given thee many a maul,
Still is that fur as soft, as when the lists
   In youth thou enter’dest on glass bottled wall.

Viceversa

by Benedetti, translated by Katya Rascovsky

Viceversa

Tengo miedo de verte
necesidad de verte
esperanza de verte
desazones de verte

tengo ganas de hallarte
preocupación de hallarte
certidumbre de hallarte
pobres dudas de hallarte

tengo urgencia de oírte
alegría de oírte
buena suerte de oírte
y temores de oírte

o sea,
resumiendo
estoy jodido

y radiante
quizá más lo primero
que lo segundo
y también

viceversa.

   Vice versa

I’m scared to see you
need to see you
hope to see you
am anxious to see you

I want to find you
worry about finding you
am certain to find you
have poor doubts of finding you

I urge to hear you
am happy to hear you
fortunate to hear you
I fear hearing you

so
in summary
I’m screwed

and radiant
maybe more the first
than the second
and also

vice versa.

Cuando estuve en el mar era marino

by Jaime Sabines, translated by Katya Rascovsky

CUANDO ESTUVE EN EL MAR ERA MARINO….

Cuando estuve en el mar era marino
este dolor sin prisas.
Dame ahora tu boca:
me la quiero comer con tu sonrisa.

Cuando estuve en el cielo era celeste
este dolor urgente.
Dame ahora tu alma:
quiero clavarle el diente.

No me des nada, amor, no me des nada:
yo te tomo en el viento,
te tomo del arroyo de la sombra,
del giro de la luz y del silencio,

de la piel de las cosas
y de la sangre con que subo al tiempo.
Tú eres un surtidor aunque no quieras
y yo soy el sediento.

No me hables, si quieres, no me toques,
no me conozcas más, yo ya no existo.
Yo soy sólo la vida que te acosa
y tú eres la muerte que resisto.

   WHEN I WAS AT SEA IT WAS MARINE…

When I was at sea it was marine
this pain without haste.
Give me your mouth now:
I want to eat it with your smile.

When I was in the sky it was celestial
this urgent pain.
Give me your soul now:
I want to sink my teeth in it.

Give me nothing love, give me nothing:
I drink you up in the wind,
I drink you from the stream of shadow,
from the turn of light and silence,

from the skin of things
and from the blood with which I raise time.
You are the source although you deny it
And I am the thirsty one

Don’t talk to me, if you want, don’t touch me,
cease to know me, I no longer exist.
I am only the life that haunts you
And you are the death that I resist.

Banana

by the Aggrolites

The Aggrolites – Banana (Yo Gabba Gabba!)

Nice when “edge” bands do fun stuff for kids, although perhaps a harder group also would have woven in a subtle statement on the Banana Wars. Maybe when/if I see them live (they’re playing in my neighborhood in a couple weeks) I’ll ask if they had to self-censor to get on Nick, or if actually they don’t care about the connection. Seems like a Marley, Rancid, Clash, or even Police treatment of the topic would go so much deeper.

Everybody like it…ba-na-nana.