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PAU JOAN HERNÁNDEZ (born 1967)

 

 
 
FOR Y'ALL (ARS POETICA) (Translation by Hillary Gardner)

Having determined the poor quality
of my inferior discourse in shaky music;
having decided I do not examine the sulfurous
oracle hid within the cracks of Delphi,
nor measure words with Neoclassical concern,
nor rhyme with assonance, abiding by feet;
having realized I am no metaphysic,
do not cosmogenize the cut of any fashion,
do not desire to be a senator of rhetoric,
do not adore antiquity nor what Europe is up to;
having determined I am sincere, anarchical,
do not weave sonnets from intergalactic yarns,
nor hexameters with an empty urban flavor,
I wonder why the hell I write these verses.