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Balada de las Tres Ninfas / Ballad of the Three Nymphs

By Eduardo Chirinos    Translated by G. J. Racz     After Lorca

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          Las tres ninfas del cáncer han estado bailando
                     —FEDERICO GARCÍA LORCA


                  para Pepa Merlo

Tres ninfas vienen a visitarme por las noches.
La primera se desnuda al pie de mi cama, punza
con ardor las yemas de mis dedos y no me deja
dormir. Vente conmigo, dice. Y voy con ella
 
hacia panales donde reina el frío, donde abundan
las sierpes y las moscas. La segunda es más joven
y discreta, pero no me deja comer. Cierra con ce-
rrojo la puerta del refrigerador, con doble llave

la despensa. Me gustas cuando estás delgado,
dice. Y recorta mis camisas con tijeras de plata,
sube la basta de mis pantalones, una y otra vez

deforma los espejos. La tercera es una niña. Me
pregunta si alguna vez he ladrado como perro,
si quiero bailar con ella en una tumba etrusca.



          The three nymphs of cancer have been dancing.
                     —FEDERICO GARCÍA LORCA


                  para Pepa Merlo

Three nymphs come visiting me in the night.
The first, disrobing at the foot of my bed, pas-
sionately pricks my fingertips and doesn’t let
me sleep. “Come with me,” she says, and I do,

toward honeycombs where frost prevails, where
serpents and flies abound. The second is younger
and more discreet, but doesn’t let me eat. She bolts
the refrigerator door shut and keeps the pantry
 
under lock and key. “I like it when you’re thinner,”
she says, trimming my shirts with silver scissors
and taking in the hem of my pants as she distorts

the mirrors time and again. The third is just a girl.
She asks me whether I’ve ever barked like a dog
and if I’d like to dance with her on an Etruscan tomb.



EDUARDO CHIRINOS (1960 - 2016) Chirinos was born in Lima, Perú. He authored numerous books of poetry as well as volumes of academic criticism, essays, translat­ions, children’s books, and occasional pieces. Chirinos was Professor of Spanish at the Department of Modern and Classical Languages and Literatures of the University of Montana. An anthology of his work, Reasons for Writing Poetry, was translat­ed into English. His bilingual Spanish-English titles are: Written in Missoula, The Smoke of Distant Fires, While the Wolf Is Around, Thirty-Five Zoology Lessons (An Other Didactic Poems), and Medicine for the Ailments of Falcons.


G. J. RACZ is a professor of foreign languages and literature at LIU Brooklyn, review editor for Translation Review, and past president of the American Literary Translators Association (ALTA).