Little Stones at My Window

Once in a while
joy throws little stones at my window
it wants to let me know that it's waiting for me
but today I'm calm
I'd almost say even-tempered
I'm going to keep anxiety locked up
and then lie flat on my back
which is an elegant and comfortable position
for receiving and believing news

who knows where I'll be next
or when my story will be taken into account
who knows what advice I still might come up with
and what easy way out I'll take not to follow it

don't worry, I won't gamble with an eviction
I won't tattoo remembering with forgetting
there are many things left to say and suppress
and many grapes left to fill our mouths

don't worry, I'm convinced
joy doesn't need to throw any more little stones
I'm coming
I'm coming.

~ Mario Benedetti ~

(Little Stones at My Window: Selected Poems, trans. by Charles Hatfield)

Web version: www.panhala.net/Archive/Little_Stones.html


Biography



Benedetti was born in Paso de los Toros, Tacuarembó, Uruguay. He is not well known in the English-speaking world, but in the Spanish-speaking world he is considered one of Latin America's most important living writers. In 1946 he married Luz López Alegre.

From 1973 to 1985, when a military dictatorship ruled Uruguay, Benedetti lived in exile in Buenos Aires, Lima, Havana, and Spain. He currently divides his time between Montevideo and Madrid. He has been granted Honoris Causa doctorates by the Universidad de la República, Uruguay, the Universidad de Alicante, Spain and the Universidad de Valladolid, Spain. On June 7, 2005 he was named as the recipient of the Premio Menéndez y Pelayo.

More recently, on January 26, 2006, Mario Benedetti, joined other internationally renowned figures such as Gabriel García Márquez, Ernesto Sábato, Thiago de Mello, Eduardo Galeano, Carlos Monsiváis, Pablo Armando Fernández, Jorge Enrique Adoum, Pablo Milanés, Luis Rafael Sánchez, Mayra Montero and Ana Lydia Vega, in demanding sovereignty for Puerto Rico and joining the Latin American and Caribbean Congress for the Independence of Puerto Rico, which approved a resolution favoring the island-nation's right to assert its independence, as ratified unanimously by political parties from hailing from twenty two Latin American countries in November 2006; García Márquez's demand for the recognition of Puerto Rico's independence was obtained at the behest of the Puerto Rican Independence Party.

image from...www.mcep.es

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mario_Benedetti