Articles

Humanities Texas Board Member Miguel Gonzalez-Gerth recently published a book of his poetry titled Looking for the Horse Latitudes (Host Publications, 2007). The poems—touching alternately on the sea, mourning, love and lovers, language itself, and more—appear in both Spanish and English, making the book an exploration not only of each language but also the relationships of expression and art between them. "Autumn"/"Otoño" is reprinted here courtesy of Dr. Gonzalez-Gerth:

Autumn

"Lord, it is time. The Summer was too long,"
said Rilke.
Last night's and this morning's rains
have changed the look of things.
They have filtered through their narrow apertures.
They have seeped into their deepest substance.

Time in one's eyes,
the world now wet, dreams vanish,
washed away by the sky's early brilliance.
Once again imaginable,
after months of drought,
are rivers deep with sunken boulders,
seas stirred up by fickle winds,
dark, horizontal clouds,
even gigantic sheets of ice.

The hooded sky somberly threatens,
and white clots
of fertilizing liquids and rosy fragrances,
with their wonder, vivify
the stamping of beasts in the stable
of this nostalgic time that is my lordship.

Otoño

"Señor, ya es hora. El verano ha sido
demasiado", dice Rilke.
La lluvia de anoche y de esta madrugada
ha cambiado el aspecto de la vida,
se ha filtrado por los intersticios,
se ha colado por la sustancia de las cosas.

Tiempo en los ojos,
mojado el mundo, se desvanecen los sueños
lavados por la leve claridad del cielo.
Son imaginables otra vez,
despeués de meses de sequía,
los ríos profundos con rocas sumergidas,
mares agitados por el voluble viento,
nubes horizontales y apagadas,
hasta gigantes lápidas de hielo.

El cielo encapuchado amenaza sombrío,
y los coágulos blancos
de líquido fertilizante y el aroma rosáceo
vivifican con su espanto
el piafar de las bestias en la caballeriza
del nostalgico año de mi señorío.