It’s been a while already since the last pair of animals
climbed into the ark.

An admirable job.

The solitary ones have remained on earth,
the unpaired, the ones marked
with a red felt pen
by God.

The chill of the first
drops disperses them
onto the avenues
slippery
from the port and docks

already without the strength to look up,

where thousands of hands and handkerchiefs
happily wave toward the promised land—
farewell, farewell, farewell—

always in pairs.

 

Translated from the Catalan by Sharon Dolin

All translated work in this issue is supported by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.