José López Vásquez: One’s own personal “Calvary” / Su “Calvario” personal
Posted: April 6, 2012 Filed under: English, José López Vásquez, Spanish Comments Off on José López Vásquez: One’s own personal “Calvary” / Su “Calvario” personal
José López Vásquez (nace/born 1986, Managua, Nicaragua)
“Calvario”
No tuve última cena, no conocí huerto de olivos,
no tuve discípulos pero si un Iscariote.
Sobraron Caífaces, Pilatos, Heródes, para condenar
mis parábolas, pero no hubo un Barrabás que compitiera en
Pascua conmigo.
En mi tórrido sendero al Gólgota no hubo
Verónica ni Cirineo pero si hubo latigazos,
mofa y escupitajos. En mi crucificción no
hubo un pretoriano que humedeciera al menos
con vinagre mis labios, ni un Dimas ni un
Gestas ni una María acompañándome.
Ningún Arimateano me bajó de la cruz.
Nunca resucité.
_____
“Calvary”
I had no Last Supper, I knew no olive grove,
had no disciples, only an Iscariot*.
There were plenty of Caliphs, Pilates and Herods to condemn
my parables, but there was no Barabbas that might’ve
competed with me at Easter.
On my torrid path to Golgotha there was
neither Veronica nor Simon of Cyrene but there were lashes of the whip,
jeers and gobs of spit. At my crucifixion
there was no Praetorian guard who might’ve
moistened my lips with vinegar, neither was there a Dismas**
nor a Gestas** or a Mary Magdalene to keep me company.
Not a single Arimathean lowered me from the cross.
And I never rose from the dead.
*Judas
**Dismas and Gestas, the Good Thief and Bad Thief,
crucified alongside Jesus
Translation from Spanish into English: Alexander Best
Zócalo Poets 