Tomás Modesto Galán, an adjunct lecturer at York College, was awarded the Poet of the Year prize by the Americas Poetry Festival of New York, co-sponsored by CUNY’s Division of Interdisciplinary Studies, in October. Below is a poem from his 2008 book, Subway: Vida subterránea y otras confesiones, accompanied by an English translation by poet Dan Vera.
Insistiendo en el ocho de Marzo
By Tomás Modesto Galán
La vida subterránea sirve al placer de una conjugación, al malestar de cazar verbos, segregar adjetivos, deshollinar rieles, desatar una vez más la insensatez de esta pregunta, o la incomprensión que me hace cerrar los ojos y abrazar libros, paraguas nuestros desconectar las puertas del purgatorio para descubrir un aliento, el gesto vanidoso del cuerpo escondido en las ventanas, predispuesto para un cuadro, una fase equívoca, esqueletos bañados por los diseñadores o por los músicos del despertar. A esta altura la hipnosis nos lleva hacia una esquina impredecible.
Persisting on March 8th
By Tomás Modesto Galán
Translation by Dan Vera
Subway living serves at the pleasure of conjugation, the unease of chasing verbs, separating adjectives, sweeping the lines, unlacing once again the pointlessness of this question, or the unfathomable that makes me close my eyes and embrace books, our umbrellas open the gates of this purgatory to find some relief, the vain gesture of the body hidden in the windows, posed for a picture, an uncertain moment, skeletons bathed by designers or by morning’s musicians. At this point the dream takes us to an unknowable corner.
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Tomás Modesto Galán is a Dominican writer and cultural activist who has lived in New York since 1986. His most recent book is Los cuentos de Mount Hope (Editora Universitaria, 2014). Dan Vera is a US poet based in Washington, DC. His most recent book is Speaking Wiri Wiri (Red Hen Press, 2013).
