Blanca Varela: Peruvian poetess

Blanca Varela
(Peru, 1926-2009)
That Cold Light of Memory…

It’s cold this light of memory
slight glimpses insistently
shine
turn
searching for the empty bottle or
the rain puddle

behind any opening door
lies the moon
as large and flat
as out of place as a
painting
oils on paper hardened by
time

thus fell in the mind
forms and colours
coincidences
chance knotting shadows
things thrown into the black pot
where joy and fright
wildly boil

the plaster grows in a sky that was
hurt a thousand times
bleached a thousand times
the world is erased and
rewritten
to the last breath

just this:
apparent eternity
dismal splinter of light in
the entrails of the
beast that
scarcely was

.

A Rose is a Rose *

motionless it devours light
obscenely red it opens
loathsome perfection of
fleetingness
it infests poetry
with its archaic scent
. . .
Translations from the Spanish © Judith Filc / Mythweavers

. . .
Blanca Varela
(Poetisa peruana, 1926-2009)
.

Esa fría luz de la memoria…

Es fría la luz de la memoria / lo apenas entrevisto brilla / con insistencia /
gira buscando el casco de botella / o el charco de lluvia // tras cualquier puerta que se abre / está la luna / tan grande y plana / tan fuera de lugar / como si de un cuadro se tratara / óleo sobre papel / endurecido por el tiempo // así cayeron en la mente /
formas y colores / casualidades / azar que anuda sombras / vuelcos en la negra marmita /
donde a borbotones / se cuecen gozo y espanto // crece el yeso de un cielo / mil veces lastimado / mil veces blanqueado / se borra el mundo y se vuelve / a escribir /
hasta el último aliento // sólo esto / eternidad aparente / mísera astilla de luz en /
la entraña / del animal /que apenas estuvo

. . .

A rose is a rose *

inmóvil devora luz / se abre obscenamente roja / es la detestable perfección / de lo efímero / infesta la poesía / con su arcaico perfume
. . .

* En inglés en el poema original
* This poem’s title was in English in the poem’s original Spanish version.

. . .

Blanca Varela was born in Lima, Perú. She studied at the National University of San Marcos where she met her future husband, artist and sculptor Fernando de Szyszlo, with whom she raised  two children. They travelled to Paris in 1949, where they met Mexican writer and poet Octavio Paz, who would become a key figure in Varela’s life. It was Paz who persuaded her to publish her poetry, and her first volume, Ese puerto existe, came out in 1959. During her lifetime she received important literary awards: the Medalla de Honor from the Peruvian government; the Octavio Paz Prize for Poetry and Essays; and the City of Granada “Federico García Lorca” International Poetry Prize. The latter she was chosen for in 2006 – the first woman ever.
. . . . .