{"id":3612,"date":"2016-08-20T10:25:16","date_gmt":"2016-08-20T17:25:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/alteritas.net\/GXL\/?p=3612"},"modified":"2016-09-19T22:03:59","modified_gmt":"2016-09-20T05:03:59","slug":"why-death-should-i-fear-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alteritas.net\/GXL\/?p=3612","title":{"rendered":"Why, Death, Should I Fear You?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Why, Death, should I fear you?
\nAre you not my flunkey, faithfully serving
\nbeside me? Do I not watch\u00a0everything you do?
\nAre you not a mere husk of a man,
\ndocile, oblivious of whatever
\nI don\u2019t want you to see? Do you
\nnot long to have what is mine, glory,
\nsolitude, love, while but an obsequious
\nlackey\u00a0at my beck and call?
\nDo I not guide you around like a dog?
\nDo you not pliantly lip the words
\nI put into your mouth? Do you not slavishly
\nrelish the slightest kindness I grant?
\nWhat can you see or say without me?
\nWhere can you go? Dead, shall I
\nnot become, Death, your own
\ndeath, whom you, Death,\u00a0should fear,
\nshould pamper, should love?<\/p>\n

(Original Spanish below)<\/p>\n

***
\nThis translation has been a long time coming. I discovered the original\u00a0by the Andalusian Juan Ram\u00f3n Jim\u00e9nez in 1969, thanks to my Catalan<\/em>\u00a0Doktorvater\u00a0Juan Ferrat\u00e9<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Sixteen years later in Cuetzalan del Progresso in the cloud forest above Mexico\u2019s Gulf Coast I had a hand-made belt embroidered with its first line, to the express admiration of the\u00a0<\/em>artesano.<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

It is not that death is entering my prospect with any more focus in these crepuscular days. It was always there. Fear of death is our first and deepest instinct. All we can lodge against it are words we compose then utter back to ourselves. These, at least, rise to high\u00a0baroque\u00a0conceit:<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00bfComo, muerte, tenerte
\nmiedo? \u00bfNo estas conmigo aqu\u00ed trabajando?
\n\u00bfNo te toco en mis ojos; no me dices
\nque no sabes de nada, que eres hueca,
\ninconsciente y pac\u00edfica? \u00bfNo gozas,
\nconmigo, todo: gloria, soledad,
\namor, hasta tus tu\u00e9tanos?
\n\u00bfNo me est\u00e1s aguantando,
\nmuerte, de pie la vida?
\n\u00bfNo te traigo y te llevo, ciega,
\ncomo tu lazarillo? \u00bfNo repites
\ncon tu boca pasiva
\nlo que quiero que digas? \u00bfNo soportas,
\nesclava, la bondad con que te obligo?
\n\u00bfQue ver\u00e1s, que dir\u00e1s, ad\u00f3nde ir\u00e1s
\nsin m\u00ed? \u00bfNo sere yo, muerte,
\ntu muerte, a quien tu, muerte,
\ndebes temer, mimar, amar?<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Why, Death, should I fear you? Are you not my flunkey, faithfully serving beside me? Do I not watch\u00a0everything you do? Are you not a mere husk of a man, docile, oblivious of whatever I don\u2019t want you to see? Do you not long to have what is mine, glory, solitude, love, while but an … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Why, Death, Should I Fear You?”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

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