Nocturno
We’re asleep. Coma, coma, take
the key to Roma,
because in Roma there’s a strip,
on the strip, a chalet
in the chalet, a bedroom
in the bedroom, a bed
on the bed, a woman—
a woman of want:
who takes the key,
who leaves the bed,
who leaves the room,
springs the chalet,
takes up her sword,
runs down the night,
to kill the man who passes by—
comes to his strip,
back to his home,
up to his rooms,
enters his sheets
who hides the key
who hides the blade,
remaining in complaint
Roma without passerbys—
without death, and without night.
without a key, and without a woman.
Author: Rafael Alberti
Translator: Manny Grimaldi
6 thoughts on "Nocturno"
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It’s like Sesame Street, the adult version. I love how this poem keeps looping and creating itself. I have never seriously read Alberti until your translations. I like him as much — if not more — than Lorca.
There’s never been a definitive translation of his work. The internet is filled with French/Russian translation sites – go figure, he was a Marxist, French follow anti-establishmentarian trends, we know Russians in the 20th century. Sometimes when puzzling for the sense of a Spanish phrase, I’ve gone to a Frenchman, then to English.
Lorca has every jot and tittle translated. Every bit.
“There’s never been a definitive translation of his work.” Is now. These just keep on enchanting me.
” Lorca has every jot and tittle translated. Every bit.”
Yes !!
It’s very exciting Manny, As business people say, you are filling a hole in the market!
Very different from the other Albertis you’ve translated this month. I like the elliptical and fairy-take qualities here, and the way they fail to conceal the underlying sadness.