Where fears are plumed like pheasants…
I, brittle, tenebrous man,
Where fears are plumed like pheasants, I, brittle, tenebrous man, inconsolable widow, immerse myself in doubt. Here, I find refuge: flaunting my trophy injuries, feasting what is forbidding in being. Little else is possible: a dictionary of the body in motion, a frenzy of private images against a background of massacres and shame. On this embrangled route, figureless space, the rest of the creatures. Torches flare up. Tousled frieze of desires.
María Negroni (born in 1951 in Rosario, Argentina) is an Argentinian poet, essayist, novelist, and translator. She graduated from Columbia University with a PhD in Latin American literature and has received the International Prize for Essay Writing from Siglo XXI, the 2002 PEN Award for best book of poetry in translation, for Islandia, the 2001 Octavio Paz Fellowship for Poetry, the Argentine National Book Award, for El viaje de la noche, and other awards. She teaches at Sarah Lawrence College.
Michelle Gil-Montero is a poet and translator. She has translated several books of poetry by contemporary Latin American writers, including María Negroni, Valerie Mejer Caso, and Andrés Ajens. Her work has been supported by the NEA, Howard Foundation, and Fulbright.
