We sink into the night,
we stroke it with our eyes:
its echoes barking on.
The night throbs in all the senses,
we taste jellyfish-insect-fruit:
the slight presence of our dream
perfect reverberation in this oceanic broth.
Carefully we breathe,
fearful of breathlessness,
at night’s rim we’re born, gilled,
at night’s edge shadow dissolves us.

15

Ahondamos en la noche,
la palpamos con los ojos:
sus ecos son ladridos persistentes.
La noche late en cada sentido,
nos sabemos medusa-insecto-fruta:
perfecto reverberar de la leve presencia
de nuestro sueño en este caldo marino.
Respiramos susceptiblemente,
con miedo al ahogo,
al costado de la noche nos nacen branquias,
al borde de la noche se nos diluye la sombra.

24

Stone what are you telling me?
I can’t quite taste you.
Maybe your light, at this hour not so strong,
and your water washes my eyes with tears
that barely dream of drenching your presence in
/the old cathedral.
Stone what are you telling me?,
my river won’t be discovered,
my amnesia finds no quiet.

24

¿Qué me dices piedra?,
no llego a sentirte.
Tal vez tu luz, a esta hora no sea tan intensa,
y tu agua me baña los ojos con lágrimas
que apenas sueñan con humedecer tu presencia de
/antigua catedral.
¿Qué me dices piedra?,
mi río no se encuentra,
mi amnesia no halla sosiego.

Paura Rodríguez Leytón (La Paz, 1973) is a poet and journalist. Her books include Del Árbol y la arcilla azul azul  [From the Tree to the Blue Blue Clay] (Argentina, 1989); Ritos de viaje [Travel Rites] (La Paz, 2004; Caracas, 2007, ed. digital);  Pez de Piedra [Stonefish] (La Paz, 2007) and Pequeñas mudanzas [Small Changes] (Colombia, 2017), which was the runner up for the 2017 Pilar Fernández Labrador International Poetry Prize (Premio Internacional de Poesía “Pilar Fernández Labrador” 2017).

Janet McAdams is the author of the poetry collections The Island of Lost Luggage, which won the American Book Award, and Feral. A chapbook of speculative prose poems, Seven Boxes for the Country After, was published by Kent State Press in 2016. Her translations (with Katherine Hedeen) of the Cuban poet Fina García Marruz have been published or are forthcoming in the Tupelo Quarterly, Waxwing, and The Offing.