"La Caza de la Liebre" (1887)

"La Caza de la Liebre" (1887) Los caballos han sido alimentados con las yerbas de Surrey y de Kent. Son fuertes y sin grasa. Todo el año tuvieron oficios ligeros para evitarles daños o cansancio. Más rojos que una fresa bajo el sol, altos, nerviosos a la espera del corno del arcángel. Y al llegar de los días propicios llegan los Caballeros y los trepan y les dan dos palmadas en el cuello y otra vez los llaman por sus nombres. Y regresan los perros — que son muchos y finos. 18 Caballeros: rojas casacas, gorros de lana negra, mal aliento. A la derecha bosques de abedules. Robles y lavandas a la izquierda. Lord Balfour sopla el corno sin arruga ninguna. Y corren tras la liebre. Pocas guaridas entre las blandas lomas y no hay lagos o ríos — las aguas que estropean el olfato de un perro. Y los perros más gordos revientan sobre el pasto. Mas son muchos — y finos — y muerden a la liebre en el lugar preciso. Lord Maddigan remueve al muerto entre las patas del cangrejo y lo enseña a la tribu como restos de un cuero cabelludo. Su mujer y sus hijos lo reciben alegres. Arde en la cocina una fogata para asar con holgura un elefante. La dulce Cynthia — su-niña-de-7-años — comerá el animal ya después de trozado, abierto, desplumado. Y así los Caballeros celebran con oportos y ginebras a Maddigan el Lord por su valor y fuerza, a Lord Porter por sus campos de arroz en Birmania, por sus cedros en Líbano, por sus doradas cabras en Nepal, por sus minas de cobre en el Perú 231 232Rocky Mountain Review — South Pacific area: between Australia and the coast of Nigeria. Antonio Cisneros Hunting the Hare (1887) The horses have been fed on the rich grass of Surrey and Kent. They're strong and lean. All the year they've been given light work to avoid injuring or tiring them. Redder than strawberries beneath the sun, long-limbed, highlystrung , waiting for the horn of the archangel. And when the season arrives the Huntsmen come and mount them, pat their necks and call them once again by pet-names. And the pack of dogs return. 18 Huntsmen: scarlet jackets, caps of black silk, bad breath. To the right birchwoods. Oaks and lavender to the left. Lord Balfour blows his horn without a flourish. And they hunt the hare. There are few hiding-places among the smooth hills and no lakes or rivers to put the dogs off the scent. The fattest collapse in the field but there's a pack of them — pedigreed — that bite the hare in the exact place. Between the claws of a crab Lord Maddigan holds up the kill, a tattered and hairy scalp, and shows it to the tribe. His wife and children accept it happily. A fire big enough to roast an elephant is burning in the kitchen. And after the animal's been chopped up, skinned and gutted sweet Cynthia — his seven-year-old daughter — will eat it. 233 And the Huntsmen with port and gin will toast Lord Maddigan for his strength and courage, and Lord Porter for his ricefields in Burma, his cedars in the Lebanon, for his golden goats in Nepal, and his copper-mines in Peru — South Pacific area between Australia and the coast of Nigeria. Translated by David Tipton and Maureen Ahern The Spanish text of David Huerta's poem, "Ana y el Mar," is reprinted by permission of Fondo de Cultura Económica from Huerta's 1978 book, Versión. The English translation by Maureen Ahern will be appearing in the anthology New Directions in Prose andPoetry48 being published in late 1984 by New Directions Publishing Corporation (Copyright ® 1984, New Directions ). This translation was originally completed and read for the symposium, "Commitment and Rebellion: Recent Latin American Poetry," sponsored by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Department of Spanish and Portuguese of Dartmouth College, Hanover, N.H., May 30, 1981. The Spanish text of Antonio Cisneros poem, "'La Caza de la Liebre' (1887)" is reprinted by...