Poetry By Nicanor Parra

Two Poems by Nicanor Parra
(translated by Liz Werner)

Something Like That

PARRA LAUGHS like he’s condemned to hell
but when haven’t poets laughed?
at least he declares that he’s laughing

they pass the years pass
the years
at least they seem to be passing
hypothesis non fingo
everything goes on as if they were passing

now he starts to cry
forgetting that he’s an antipoet

STOP RACKING YOUR BRAINS
nobody reads poetry nowadays
it doesn’t matter if it’s good or bad

FOUR DEFECTS that my Ophelia won’t forgive me for:
old
lowlife
communist
and National Literature Prize

<<My family may be able to forgive you
for the first three
but never for the last>>

MY CORPSE and I
understand each other marvelously
my corpse asks me: do you believe in God?
and I respond with a hearty NO
my corpse asks: do you believe in the government?
and I respond with the hammer and sickle
my corpse asks: do you believe in the police?
and I respond with a punch in the face
then he gets up out of his coffin
and we go arm in arm to the altar

THE TRUE PROBLEM of philosophy
is who does the dishes

nothing otherworldly

God
the truth
the passage of time
absolutely
but first, who does the dishes

whoever wants to do them, go ahead
see ya later, alligator
and we’re right back to being enemies

HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENT
compose a sonnet
that begins with the following iambic pentameter line:
I would prefer to die ahead of you
and that ends with the following:
I would prefer that you be first to die

YOU KNOW what happened
while I was kneeling
in front of the cross
looking at His wounds?

He smiled at me and winked!

before I thought He didn’t ever laugh:
but now yeah I believe for real

A DECREPIT old man
throws red carnations
at his beloved mother’s coffin

what you are hearing, ladies and gentlemen:
an old wino
bombarding his mother’s tomb
with ribbons of red carnations

I QUIT sports for religion
(I went to mass every Sunday)
I abandoned religion for art
art for the mathematical sciences

until at last illumination hit

and now I’m someone only passing through
who puts no faith in the whole or its parts

No President’s Statue Escapes

From those infallible pigeons
Clara Sandoval used to tell us:

Those pigeons know exactly what they’re doing

These poems by Nicanor Parra, with translations by Liz Werner, will appear in Parra’s upcoming book, Antipoems: How to Look Better & Feel Great, to be published in September by New Directions (www.ndpublishing.com). 

Born in 1914 in the southern city of Chillan, Nicanor Parra, the Antipoet of Chile, studied engineering at the University of Chile, physics at Brown University, and cosmology at Oxford, and spent many years as a teacher of mathematics and a professor of physics. He published his first book of poems in 1938, but it was in 1954 with Poemas Y Antipoemas that he became known as an “antipoet.” His antitranslator, Liz Werner, is a native New Yorker, poet, and novelist who has lived and studied in Valparaiso, Chile, where she worked closely with Nicanor Parra in preparing this book.

Algo Por El Estilo

PARRA SE RIE como condenado
¡cúando no se rieron los poetas!
a lo menos declara que se ríe

pasan los años pasan
los años
a lo menos parece que pasaran
hipótesis non fingo
todo sucede como si pasaran

ahora se pone a llorar
olvidando que es antipoeta

NO SE SIGAN ROMPIENDO LA CABEZA
las poesías no las lee nadie
da lo mismo que sean buenas o malas

CUATRO DEFECTOS que mi Dulcinea no me perdona:
viejo
roto
comunista
y Premio Nacional de Literatura

<<mi familia te podría perdonar los
tres primeros
pero no el último>>

MI CADAVER y yo
nos entendemos a las mil maravillas
Mi cadáver pregunta ¿crees en Dios?
y yo respondo con un NO de pecho
mi cadáver pregunta crees en el gobierno?
y yo respondo con la hoz y el martillo
mi cadáver pregunta crees en la policía?
y yo respondo con un recto al mentón
Entonces él se levanta del ataúd
y nos vamos del brazo al altar

EL VERDADERO PROBLEMA de la filosofía
es quién lava los platos

nada del otro mundo

Dios
la verdad
el transcurso del tiempo
claro que sí
pero primero quién lava los platos

el que quiera lavarlos que los lave
chao pescao
y tan enemigos como antes

TAREA PARA LA CASA
redactar un soneto
que comience con el siguiente endecasílabo:
Yo prefiero morir antes que tú
y que termine con el siguiente:
Yo prefiero que tú mueras primero

SABEN lo que pasó
mientras yo me encontraba arrodillado
frente a la cruz
mirando sus heridas?

¡me sonrió y me cerró un ojo!

yo creía que El no se reía:
ahora sí que creo de verdad

UN ANCIANO decrépito
lanza claveles rojos
al ataúd de su sra madre

lo que oyen sras y sres
un anciano beodo
bombardea la tumba de su madre
con serpentinas de claveles rojos

YO DEJE los deportes por la religión
(oía misa todos los domingos)
abandoné la religión por el arte
el arte por las ciencias exactas

hasta que se produjo la iluminación

Ahora soy un simple transeúnte
que desconfia del todo y sus partes
De Las Infalibles Palomas

No se libra la estatua de ningún presidente
Nos decía la Clara Sandoval

Las palomas saben múy bien lo que hacen These poems by Nicanor Parra, with translations by Liz Werner, will appear in Parra’s upcoming book, Antipoems: How to Look Better & Feel Great, to be published in September by New Directions (www.ndpublishing.com). 

Born in 1914 in the southern city of Chillan, Nicanor Parra, the Antipoet of Chile, studied engineering at the University of Chile, physics at Brown University, and cosmology at Oxford, and spent many years as a teacher of mathematics and a professor of physics. He published his first book of poems in 1938, but it was in 1954 with Poemas Y Antipoemas that he became known as an “antipoet.” His antitranslator, Liz Werner, is a native New Yorker, poet, and novelist who has lived and studied in Valparaiso, Chile, where she worked closely with Nicanor Parra in preparing this book.