Juan Lamillar

trans. by Dan Bogen

The Presence of Death

In memorium J.L.

The way Death gives
a slight transparency to things,
faint hints of abandonment,
an uneasiness like drizzle.
The way it sneaks through the patios, the silences,
to focus on where it's headed,
its well-known mission,
the unequivocal music of the Night.
The labyrinthine tapestry of fear
and pain arrives before it does.
And now that we're aware it's in the house,
we see things differently:
the suspicious stillness of everyday objects,
the beauty hidden in what doesn't move.
In everyone who brings tears and words
to open the ravaged gardens of memory,
winter in disguise.
The way Death is a despondent music,
a distant aria that won't surprise us
except for the fleeting landscape it calls up,
precise in every detail, still in flames.

You can read more of Juan Lamillar’s work in the print edition of The Arkansas International 8.

Born in Seville in 1957, Juan Lamillar is the author of ten books of poetry, including Entretiempo (Renacimiento, 2015), a volume of selected poems. Prizes for his poetry include the Premio Luis Cernuda, the Premio Vicente Nuñez, and the Premio Villa de Rota. 

Don Bogen is the author of five books of poetry, most recently Immediate Song (Milkweed, 2019), and the translator of Europa: Selected Poems of Julio Martínez Mesanza (Diálogos, 2016). His recent poems have appeared in Poetry Northwest, the Yale Review, and other journals. His website is www.donbogen.com.