A Heron in Buenas Aires
by Luis Benitez

Description

The first comprehensive collection of poems by Argentinian Luis Benitez to be translated into English shows clearly why he enjoys an international audience. Ravenna has selected published and unpublished work with an eye toward emphasizing the poet’s world view and, via the close attentions of Ravenna Associate Editor Cooper Renner to the work of prior translators, presenting an even voice throughout. (Cover drawing by Cooper Renner.)

Excerpt:

The Pearl Fisherman

This evening and partway into the night
I sank again into the dense sea
where we beings and things float.
I went down for pearls to show to men
afraid even to come to the shore.
This evening and partway into the night
I was in that silence, in those depths
where the most immeasurable pleasure would be
to dissolve oneself, and I knew that on every path
there are monsters for those who fear them.
I swam to that place where
you neither love nor hate,
you merely float over an eternal present,
and everything you see is your contemporary:
the tides bring nothing from the past or future.
There I found this pearl, and now I offer it to you.
But when I wanted to return,
I saw no one on the shore.
I saw no shore. Everything is sea.
Those who are afraid of the shore
do not know they are walking on the sea.