- Poems from Hanni Ossott’s El reino donde la noche se abre
Being
I am on an endless beach my soul unfolds unadvised towards a strange nothingness
I know nothing of my name of my bodyabsolved of all being of all obligationI surrender myself alone to the warmth I drowse
Infinite, I am this sand that erases me that I want to be
1983 [End Page 198]
Ser
Estoy en una playa sin fin mi alma se despliega inconsulta hacia una rara nada
No sé de mi nombre de mi cuerpoabsuelta de todo ser de toda obligaciónme entrego a solas al ardor me adormezco
Infinita, soy esta arena lo que me borra lo que quiero ser
1983 [End Page 199]
The Realm Where Night Opens
I come from this realm… the vast, obscure, boundless realm into which everything casts itself agitatedIn it, images take possession and come crowding, one on top of another in a voracious, instantaneous exchangeThere is no cessation there, only grief or an infinite gladness weeping and fear enshroud that vault and reach beyond the circularity of a self always on the verge of collapse of exaltation
Because there is also laughter along with the unrest extreme tension of joy excesses for the dark night ecstasy culmination
I come from the realm where the night opens suddenly a realm of apparitionsin it, nature and objects grow and intensify speak, burst out
I exist there without myself, in surrender, held captive the seas then cross my body assailing pore and skin or the void, a zone of grey and white spreads its wide canopy in the center of my soultoward a not knowing that stretches, desert-like
I am from that still unconquered realmthat comes without permission and departs when it wishesdifficult, hilarious, confusing and repleteat times, there emerges from it a word, a symbol, a rhythm at others, it lays wasteBefore it, my being should be tranquil, attentive it should accept like an embrace this movement, this urgency, this hurry or this stillness of stagnant waters full of larvae [End Page 200]
My eye should be then a great eye, a beacon the attentive eye of the fish that watches
My eye should be detached from the pain, from the mangling between the fluctuation of joys and sorrows
At times it should, but does not want to it should, but is unable it, too, only wants to sink into the depthsand a thread of desire runs through it the desire for happiness, for love and death
The dark realm does not tell us what it brings it has no time, lacks measure rugged it is a space for a temporary stay full of the extraordinary overflowing with memory
It is uninhabitable, because excessive and notwithstanding, fruitful
In its center, fire and water, sea tearing at the land carving troughs in the soul pounding against its shores
June, 1985 [End Page 201]
El reino donde la noche se abre
Soy de ese reino… el reino oscuro, vasto, sin bordes donde cada cosa se precipita agitadaEn él imágenes poseen y se agolpan, unas a otras como en intercambio voraz, instantáneoNo hay cese allí sino duelo o una alegría infinita un llanto y un miedo cubren esa bóveda traspasan la circularidad de un sí mismo siempre pronto al hundimiento a la exaltación
Porque también hay risas junto a la zozobra extrema tensión de la alegría desbordes para la noche oscura éxtasis colmaciónSoy del reino donde la noche se abre repentinamente reino de aparicionesen él naturaleza y cosa se acrecen, se intensifican hablan, irrumpen
Soy allí sin yo, en entrega, tomada los mares entonces cruzan el cuerpo agreden poro y piel o el vacío, una zona gris, blanca instala su ancha carpa en el centro del almahacia un no saber que se extiende desértico
Soy de ese reino aún no domeñadoque llega sin permiso y parte cuando quiere reino difícil, hilarante, confuso yplenoa veces surge de él una palabra, un s...