I don't have official permission to translate poems by Uruguayan writer Mario Benedetti, but I'm putting some up here because, 1) He's not well known outside of South America but should be, and 2) his official translator is doing a horrible job (adding words, changing sentences structure). Here's the first:
Music
If one could insert oneself into the music
and rest there while the world
continues being a combustible racket
maybe I could stop death
without weighty reasons / simply
because it is maddening and never defeated
if one could install oneself in the music
be violin or guitar or clavichord
and choose sweet hallucinations
or timid temporary questions
the soul would sound like a dream
or the miracle of a bird suspended
but no one has been able to introduce themselves
like a spy between two modulations /
in that odd strip of ringings
the music will always be for others
others who prowl through the night
until threading the needle of insomnia
—Mario Benedetti (trans. John Yohe)
Música
Si uno pudiera insertarse en la música
y descansar allí mientras el mundo
sigue siendo un estruendo combustible
tal vez podría detener la muerte
sin razones de peso / simplemente
porque es latosa y no se rinde nunca
si uno pudiera instalarse en la música
ser violín o guitarra o clavicordio
y elegir dulces alucinaciones
o tímida pregunta temporales
el almo sonaría como un sueño
o el milagro de un pájaro en suspenso
pero nadie had podido introducirse
como espía entre dos modulaciones /
en esa franja impar de los tañido
la música será siempre de otros
otros ue por la noche merodean
hasta enhebrar la aguja del insomnio
—Mario Benedetti
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