La paz, la avispa

       Peace, wasp, wad, rivercourse,
corpse, deciliters, owl,
sites, ringworm, sarcophagi, waterglass, brunettes,
ignorance, pot, altarboy,
drops, forgetfulness,
potentate, cousins, archangels, needle,
vicars, ebony, spite,
part, type, stupor, soul...

       Ductile, saffroned, external, clear,
portable, old, thirteen, bloodsmeared,
they're photographed, ready, tumescent,
they're linked, long, bedecked, perfidious...

       Burning, comparing,
living, getting infuriated,
striking, analyzing, hearing, shuddering,
dying, holding on, locating, weeping...

       After, these, here,
after, overhead,
perhaps, while, behind, so much, so never,
beneath, maybe, far,
always, that one, tomorrow, how much,
how much!...

       What is horrible, sumptuous, slowest,
what is august, fruitless,
what is ominous, twitching, wet, fatal,
what is all, purest, lugubrious,
what is tart, satanic, tactile, profound...


--César Vallejo, "La paz, la avispa..." (25 September 1937)
tr. Clayton Eshleman