Today I stopped the turmoil of my head 

And took the time to hear attentively 

I realised the phrase my mind was repeating 

Wasn’t the same the voice in the radio 

Announced several times a day 

During the last two or three years.

This takes me to a state of distrust about all what happens in my life; could it be the reality is one thing different from what I am experiencing on a daily basis?

Maybe if someone would tell my life in some years I won’t identify with it, I am probably living another reality just existing in my mind.

Should I assume that the love that I believed powerful enough to divert riverbeds and reverse tides was just a story that took place within the confined space of my brain? That the world hasn’t received even a fraction of the light shining inside me?

Am I really alive? Is life just an illusion in my mind? Poor soul that has carried a giant load of suffering that no one else has ever been able to notice.

Ilusión

Hoy detuve el torbellino de mi cabeza 

Y tomé el tiempo de escuchar atentamente 

Me di cuenta que la frase que mi mente repetía 

No era la misma que la voz en la radio 

Anunciaba varias veces al día…

Durante los últimos dos o tres años

Esto me lleva a un estado de desconfianza ante todo lo que sucede en mi vida;  ¿Será que la realidad es algo diferente a lo que estoy viviendo a diario?

Tal vez si alguien contara mi vida dentro de algunos años yo no me identificaría con ella, probablemente esté viviendo otra realidad que simplemente sólo existe en mi mente.

¿Debo asumir que el amor que creía lo suficientemente poderoso como para desviar los cauces de los ríos y revertir las mareas era solo una historia que tuvo lugar dentro del espacio confinado de mi cerebro?  ¿Que el mundo no recibió ni una fracción de la luz que brilla dentro de mí?

¿Estoy realmente vivo?  ¿Es la vida tan solo una ilusión en mi mente?  ¡Pobre alma mía, que ha portado una inmensa carga de sufrimiento invisible para la humanidad!

Esta mañá sentín magoa 
por unha gaivota que me perseguiu 
dende o parking ata a oficina
e de volta ao coche no final do turno

Mentres lavo a leituga 
no chorro de auga
volven outras épocas 
nas que o contacto 
coas finas follas verdes 
branqueando cara á cerna
conéctame coas rutinas doutras vidas
nas que era tamén eu, noutras casas 
noutros países, noutras familias

Abaixo da fiestra, no río
ségueme a acompañar
a respiración maina do mar 
acada agora o canaval
loce fermosa a ribeira

Mentres preparo a ensalada 
a gaivota desta mañá
ségueme perseguindo 
voando en círculos 
centrados en min
lanzando simulacros de ataque
picados a uns metros
da miña cabeza 

Co desespero dos seres
que perden o niño
eternamente a chorar
os seus pitiños 
e pensei, por que me escolleu?

os dous somos de mar 
os dos fomos feridos

While preparing the salad

This morning I felt sorry
for a seagull that chased me 
from the parking lot to the office
and back to the car at the end of the shift

While I wash the lettuce 
in the water jet
other eras return 
in which the contact 
with thin green leaves 
blanching towards the core
connect me to the routines of other lives
in which I was also, in other houses 
in other countries, in other families

Below the window, in the river
the calm breath of the sea
keep accompanying me
now it reaches the reedbed
the riverside looks beautiful

While I prepare the salad 
the seagull of this morning
keep chasing me 
flying in circles 
centered on me
launching attack drills
making nosedives a few meters 
away of my head 

With the desperation of beings
having lost their nest
forever crying
theirs chicks 
and I thought, why did it choose me?

we are both from the sea 
we had both of us been injured

anos 

varrendo a grava 

en terras afastadas 

por horas de voo 

miles de millas náuticas 

interminables xornadas ao volante 

para sentir esta calor no peito 

ao botar a man ao peto traseiro

e descubrir que os diamantes 

estiveran todo o tempo

comigo

The Quest

years 

sweeping the gravel 

in distant lands 

separated by flight hours 

thousands of nautical miles 

endless days behind the wheel 

to feel this warmth in the chest 

when reaching into my back pocket

and discovering that diamonds 

had been all along

with me

Eu 
No que ao meu cerne refire
Paseo ao carón dun leito enorme
Cuberto da manta aveludada 
O seu roce, a sua dispoñibilidade  
Esperta a urxencia dos encontros 
Ávidos de nós 

Abandonadas as forzas estelares 
Sentímonos únicos nesta sede 
Compás co que nos navegamos 
ata a saciedade arroladora do sono 
Na dozura máis suave da pel 
Nosa

Velvet

Me 
As far as my core is concerned
I walk next to a huge bed
Covered in velvet-like blanket 
Its touch, its availability  
Awakens an urgency of encounters 
We crave for

Once abandoned star forces 
We feel unique in this thirst
Compass to navigate our own seas
Until the satiety that will sway sleep 
In the softest sweetness 
Of our skin

Saímos de Londres cara ao leste 
Na autovía apenas se movían 
As ringleiras interminables de coches 
Á conquista da cidade 

O ceo baixo e gris sobre chairas verdes 
Creo que a falta de montes me desconcerta
Ou é que a grande metrópole semella ilusión 
Cando te afastas unhas millas 

Espertas dun soño no que había o metro 
E buses vermellos de dous pisos
Rañaceos e xentes solitarias 
como planetas nas suas órbitas

Star forces

We left London for the East 
On the dual carriageway 
The endless rows of cars barely advanced 
In their conquest of the city 

The sky low and grey over green plains 
I think the lack of mountains baffles me
Or is it because the metropolis seems an illusion 
When you move a few miles away 

You wake up from a dream 
garnished with the Tube 
And double decker red buses 
Skyscrapers and lonely people 
Like planets in their orbits

I was driving to the depot 
At seven in the morning 
In shorts and a t-shirt
By East India Dock Rd 
And through the open windows 
The clamor of the seagulls entered 
Welcoming me after the long journey 
I could feel the mighty ocean
Overflowing inside me
Flooding London's dual carriageways

De camiño ao traballo

Conducía ás sete da mañá hacia o taller 
De pantalóns curtos e camiseta
Por East India Dock Rd 
E a través das ventás abertas 
Entraba o balbordo das gaivotas 
Que me recibían tras a longa travesía 
Podía sentir o poderoso océano
Desbordar dentro de min
Inundar as autovías de Londres

Manuela Timofte has published today my Poem Dictionary in Masticadores. You can visit it by clicking on the link

Poem Dictionary

I am very grateful and happy to see this definition of mine see a new day

Non estaba día de praia, aínda que había un pouco de sol o aire ía fresco e non apetecía sacar a camiseta. A app do móbil daba chuvia para esa mesma noite.

As nenas chegaron carrexando sen esforzo a vitalidade que faltaba nos pais. Conversas de adulto, política, vacacións, distancias; preguntas nas que os ollos procuran o afastado horizonte.

As nenas berraban cantos estridentes, facían piruetas, salpicaban, coreaban o meu nome cando nadaba cara as boias amarelas. Fixemos o pino xuntos, saltamos dunha rocha collidos da man, fixemos o parvo, pasámolo ben.

Ao teléfono comezaban a chegar os mails da compañía aérea, pola tarxeta de embarque. Na sua cabeza unha tristura fonda que tentaba sacudirse naquelas areas efímeras, antes da inevitable partida. Definitivamente, esa noite chovería.

Chances of rain

It wasn’t a beach day, although there was a bit of sun, the air was cool and you didn’t feel like taking your shirt off. The mobile app predicted rain for that same night.

The girls arrived effortlessly carrying the vitality that was lacking in their parents. Adult conversations, politics, holidays, distances;  questions in which the eyes seek the distant horizon.

The girls screamed shrill songs, pirouetted, splashed, chanted my name as I swam toward the yellow buoys. We did handstands together, we jumped off a rock holding hands, fooled around, had a good time.

Emails from the airline began to arrive on the phone, regarding the boarding pass. In her head a deep sadness that she tried to shake off on those ephemeral sands, before the inevitable departure. It would definitely rain that night.

¡Cancela, por favor, la primavera!
Que llegue el agua fría del mar 
A deslizarse entre mis muslos
Con cada brazada, con cada patada
¡Sea acariciado cada poro de mi piel!
Y así el cuerpo borre la memoria 
Dolorosa de la espera vana
Por una esquina de sus labios
Por una sombra de sus dedos 
Sobre el páramo ávido de mis anhelos

Cancel spring!

Please, cancel spring!
Let the cold water of the sea  
Slide between my thighs
With every stroke, with every kick
Let every pore of my skin be caressed!
And so my body erases the painful
Memory of vain waiting
For a corner of her lips
For a shadow of her fingers 
On the avid moorland of my desires

Abaixo a piscina na que aprendín a natación
A estación marítima onde tantas veces collín o barco para cruzar a ría
As escaleiras do peirao que abrigaron o primeiro bico
Tamén a marquesina na que durmira unha das borracheiras
E a dársena onde traballara pintando iates
…
Saio pola porta e o arrecendo do mar 
Sobe como unha potente onda
En poucos segundos xa nos posúe
E todos os meus eus dunha vida
Asentan dentro de min, podo sentir algo 
Non é felicidade pero si unha paz 
Que me arrola: cada chanzo do camiño
Trouxome ata aquí

Brief note

Down there, the pool where I learned swimming 
The maritime station where I took the boat so many times to cross the estuary
The pier stairs that sheltered the first kiss
Also the bus shelter that was a bed for me after one of the benders
And the dock of my first paid jobs, painting yachts
 …
I go out the door and the scent of the sea 
rises like a powerful wave
In a few seconds it owns us
And all my selves of one entire life
settle inside me, I can feel something 
It is not happiness but a peace 
That rocks me: every step of the way
Brought me here