Juan Gelman
b. 1930, in Buenos Aires ~ 2014
History
Studying history,
dates, battles, letters written on stone,
famous phrases, luminaries smelling of sanctity,
I see only dark, metallurgical,
mining, sewing, slaves' hands
creating the brilliance, the adventure of the world,
they died and their fingernails still grew.
[translated by Robert Marquez]
Latin American Revolutionary Poetry
(Monthly Review 1974)
