Shopping Cart
    items

      ←

      April 10, 2021The Beggar’s FigureJose Manuel Arango

      1

      There he is,
      seated
      on the steps of the cathedral,
      his back to the church door.
      At his side,
      one step down,
      his hat.
      And elbow on knee,
      bearded chin
      in his palm,
      in the pose
      of the Thinker!

      2

      This beggar knows.
      He knows his public.
      In the morning
      his spot is the atrium
      of the cathedral.
      At night you’ll find him
      curled up
      at a whorehouse door.

      tr. by John Oliver Simon

      from #29 - Summer 2008

      José Manuel Arango was born in el Carmen del Viboral, a village named for its poisonous snakes, in the state of Antioquia, Columbia. He studied in the United States as a young man and published translations of Whitman, Williams, Dickinson, and Han Shan. John Oliver Simon (who translated “The Beggar’s Figure”) spent an afternoon talking poetry with him in a cafe off the Plaza Berrios in Medellín in 1996, while José’s wife took their grandchildren to a movie.

      →