Al començament
jo era terra
jeia d'esquena per ser camp
i quan em girava
de costat
era un turó
sota estrelles glaçades.
No hi veia.
Em veien.
De dia i de nit
els mots em queien a sobre.
Llavors. Gotes de pluja.
Bocins de gebre.
D'un d'ells
vaig aprendre el meu nom.
Em vaig aixecar. El vaig recordar.
Ara podia explicar la meva història.
Era diferent
de la història que explicaven de mi.
I ara també
era primavera.
Veia la ferida que havia deixat
a la terra quan en vaig partir.
Vaig viatjar cap a ponent.
Quan hi vaig ser
amb quant d'amor mirava
tots els camps
quan mostraven
la roda rovellada i l'esquelet d'un cotxet
i mirava les gatoses:
distàncies fulgents
que jo havia estat
i que m'havien malentès.
Torna a nosaltres
deien,
Confieu en mi vaig mormolar.
——————————————————
Mother Ireland
At first
I was land
I lay on my back to be fields
and when I turned
on my side
I was a hill
under freezing stars.
I did not see.
I was seen.
Night and day
words fell on me.
Seeds. Raindrops.
Chips of frost.
From one of them
I learned my name.
I rose up. I remembered it.
Now I could tell my story:
It was different
from the story told about me.
And now also
it was spring.
I could see the wound I had left
in the land by leaving it.
I travelled west.
Once there
I looked with so much love
at every field
as it unfolded
its rusted wheel and its pram chassis
and at the gorse
bright distances
I had been
that they misunderstood me.
Come back to us
they said.
Trust me I whispered.
Eavan Boland. Sal oceànica = Ocean salt. 2022
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Selecció, introducció i traducció de Miquel Àngel Llauger.