I saw it snow by Daiana Henderson, translated by Lucina Schell


 
 
I saw it snow, in Rosario, on a sunny day
Let’s see if someone gets what I’m saying.
We were on the first level of a
parking garage. We got out, ensconcing
our hands in the openings in our clothing.
A man passed too close in his car,
said something that sounded like
it was snowing in Fisherton,
“what did he say?”, “that guy is crazy”,
we looked outside and the perfect flakes
descended over the windshields, it was like a
redemption and I was reminded of so many books
and so many movies. I wanted to call everyone
up on the phone, tell them I loved them.
I need something to break the fuck out of my heart.
Like when an awful song gets stuck in your head
and you need another catchy song to replace
that piece in your automatic brain.
I need something to destroy me.

 
 
 

Daiana Henderson was born in Paraná, Argentina in 1988. She has lived in the city of Rosario since 2007. Her last books of poetry include Un foquito en medio del campo (2013), Humedal (2014) and Caja de herramientas (Chapbook, 2016). She is co-author of several poetry anthologies, which include 40 velocidades. Colección de poemas en bicicleta (2014) and 53/70: poesía argentina del siglo XXI (2015). She co-directs the editorial Neutrinos, specializing in contemporary poetry, and she has been a member of the curatorial team of the International Poetry Festival of Rosario since 2013.

Lucina Schell works in international rights for the University of Chicago Press and is founding editor of Reading in Translation. She is a member of the Third Coast Translators Collective, and translates poetry from the Spanish. She has translated the chapbook of Daiana Henderson’s poetry So That Something Remains Lit (Cardboard House Press), and the first full-length collection of poetry by Miguel Ángel Bustos is forthcoming in her translation from co•im•press in 2018.