Hot coffee
I enter34
psychedelic drumming
caramelized trumpet blast
lure of an impromptu electric jam session
fusion
tempo bewitchingly otherworldly35
To the sound of a neglected kettle36
I pounce37
skin electric
deking you out38
a furious adagio
pulsating in unison
culminating
in one uncontrollable
explosion
While the coffee gets wasted39
You and me, on a day of sunshine and showers40
34 Hot Coffee plays with jazz concepts, African rhythms. It dances, it’s entrancing and sensuous, erotic. Playful. “I enter” cannot match the elegance of Entro, but the idea is to write a new poem that works, and to stop looking back.
35 The expression “fusión con”, the ratatat of it, gets lost in translation.
36 Let me say that I just love this line!
37 Arrebatarse is the self-reflexive form of arrebatar, meaning to seize or wrench away, to carry off… like a bird of prey would, to prey on, pry away from. In the reflexive it means to get carried away, excited, out of control. I pounce seizes and works very well setting up the scene of furious erotic adagio.
38 The term cambios de mano belongs to sports, principally basketball, where you fake somebody out, feinting to the left, only to throw or kick the ball to the right. Deking it is.
39 Nice little pun here.
40 It’s not just because I love hot coffee that I chose to translate this poem, but I found that it lent itself well to creating a very fun English rendition, full of vivacity and word play.
Café caliente
Entro
en los timbales alucinógenos
trompeta caramelizada
anzuelo en un potaje eléctrico improvisado
fusión
con tempo divino de embrujo
Al son de un hervidor de agua desatendido
Me arrebato
saltos de piel
cambios de mano
adagio endiablado
pulsación de un bloque unido
en un solo gigante de explosión
incontrolable
Mientras que el café se echa a perder
Tu y yo en un día de lluvia con sol