The Academi Cardiff International Poetry Competition

David Angel

Translations

I’d like a party to take place
in this green sociable forest
where trees converse at a distance
and a black bull tosses the moon

over a meat-packed shoulder:
heraldic, formal, hierarchic,
no threat to the giggling coach
full of young people from England

which flickering like a candle
between diminutive cork trees,
stops by a non-existent house
that could be in Bess, or Arden.

Such would be, one might imagine,
this translation of passive verbs
indirect objects, subjunctive
moods and mild imperatives

were it not for the murderer’s
bric-a-brac displayed in cases:
hearts like sentimental cushions
blood congealing in a tin

candelabra made of sugar
soft abasements and rigmaroles
the gesture of an exhumed hand
sawn off carefully at the wrist.

David Angel was born and educated in England, but has spent most of his working life abroad. Since the year 2000 he has been living and working in Valencia, on the Spanish Mediterranean coast. In recent years, he has received a number of prizes for his poetry, and is presently working on translations of the Colombian poet, Alvaro Mutis.