Light on Stone by Juan Lamillar – translated by Don Bogen


 
 
We never spoke its name, but its realm is here.
With its wet light, the rain slowly caresses
the magnificent old stone of the church in the woods,
spills out among the graves in the small cemetery,
flows among ferns, slows to a pool, and grows still
within the shadowed border of the tall trees.
It used to be rain. Now it’s a murmur passing through the halls,
and the church submerged in the sea of earth
and the headstones in the sea of death are plunged
still deeper by its music. The stark blazon
of light on stone. Rain inscribing
the castaways’ names.
 
 
 
Born in Seville in 1957, Juan Lamillar is the author of ten books of poetry, including Entretiempo (Renacimiento, 2015), a volume of selected poems. Prizes for his poetry include the Premio Luis Cernuda, the Premio Vicente Nuñez, and the Premio Villa de Rota.
 
Don Bogen is the author of five books of poetry, most recently Immediate Song (Milkweed, 2019), and the translator of Europa: Selected Poems of Julio Martínez Mesanza (Diálogos, 2016). Recent poems appear in Poetry Northwest, The Yale Review, and other journals. His website is www.donbogen.com.