Click below on the icon next to a poem to read the original poem in Catalan
 

JORDI CORNUDELLA (born 1962)

 

 
 
MALADROIT (Translation by Hillary Gardner)

I didn't know what to do with my body,
arms that threatened to half embrace you
but not my hands-and you helped me.
You welcomed the gesture, rescuing it mid-air.
You rescued the gesture and also, gave it shelter,
so what was easy suddenly revealed some new
quickened currents in those once still waters.
Suddenly that sea had a depth
only your eyes could discover-
and in those depths a wakened vertigo.
Love lying in the dead well of the gut
stirred, so slightly we couldn't believe it.
From that gurge, time (I mean habit)
robbed us of our capricious thirst,
our curiosity and our fear, somewhat.