Beste hizkuntzetako lanen zerrenda

 

  Translation: Paddy Bushe

 

 

Terra Nova

 

                Very early in my life, it got too late

                                          Marguerite Duras

 

You were a late arrival

my mother would say to me.

 

I was two weeks over my time

for fear of the world.

I was a red fish in my mother's womb

two extra weeks in the spawning.

 

Three point six kilos

she reported by radiophone to my father.

 

A birth-slap and

I bawled for my father.

 

My daughter!

My daughter!

echoed at the bow.

Fishing is fine

over and out.

 

Drinks for the crew that night

were all on my father.

My father slept well that night.

 

Six months passed before he could meet the shrimp

hanging from my mother's hook.

 

When he took me in his arms

I swam for the first time in the sea.

 

Now I realise that it was not only my tears

in all that briny ocean.

 

 

 

© Leire Bilbao
© translation: Paddy Bushe


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