poetry

Translations.

Frausto 18 Comments

So here are the translations for Cuando Las Leyes Se Escriben and Quien Se Acuerda, which some readers requested. The originals in Spanish were posted on July 10.

Quien Se Acuerda?:

Who Remembers?

Who remembers when we were?
Who remembers what we were?
What we are?
Will continue being?

Like a wave from the sea,
Or a rolling stone
That on the journey is found.
Like a breeze from the wind,
A caress and a kiss
From the planet and universe,
An instant and a moment
Well it’s the same thing
If our love is eternal.

You want me.
I want you.
I love you.
You love me,
And like birds, both of us,
Grow out wings
So as to no become entangled
Amongst the vines
Of our garden.

Until we become
Oxygen for both of us
To survive,
To be able to exist.

Without you I don’t want to go on.

You have me.
I have you,
And that’s how we’ll go on
Like waves from the sea
Or rolling stones
That on the journey found each other.

Who remembers when we were?
Who remembers what we were?
When what we are,
Will continue being
Is the only thing that matters.

And our little family.

07.02.14 Translated 07.15.14

Cuando Las Leyes Se Escriben:

When Laws Are Written

Look, look how it falls,
The people cower,
And the lie stretches itself.
The lie stretches out.

There must not be room here
For all of the people
To exist
Always united?

Oh what a world, so confused.
We want to live in peace,
But with so many wars-
Well, we can’t anymore.

And where will we fit
Within this system without brakes?
Where will we end
If we’ve never been taken into account
When the laws are written
And they get invented?

Look, look how it falls,
The people cower,
And the lie stretches itself.
The lie stretches out.

I didn’t come,
They brought me here,
And I didn’t choose where I was born.
I am a citizen of the world.

I decide
How I identify myself,
In which language I explain myself,
And with what tongue I describe
The universe, which I explore
While I’m dreaming and awake.

While I’m dreaming and awake,
I go out and navigate
With a pen and a thousand words,
With my eyes like a camera,
So I don’t forget.
So I won’t now forget.

Look, look how it falls,
The people cower,
And the lie stretches itself.
The lie stretches out.

07.09.14 Translated 07.15.14

Cuando Las Leyes Se Escriben.

Frausto 16 Comments

Here’s a song from today that Pepetorias and I created while hanging out. It’s in demo form since we only worked on it for a few hours. Maybe we’ll go back to it one day, and work on it some more. Usually though, we just end up starting something new.

Cuando Las Leyes Se Escriben

Mira, mira como cai,
El pueblo se tira,
Y la mentira se estira.
La mentira se estira.

Aqui no habra espacio
Pa’ que existan
Todos los pueblos
Siempre unidos?

A que este mundo tan confundido.
Queremos vivir en paz,
Pero con tantas guerras-
Pues ya no se puede.

Y donde cabremos
Dentro de este sistema sin frenos?
En donde acabaremos
Si nunca se nos ha tomado en cuenta
Cuando las leyes se escriben
Y se las inventan?

Mira, mira como cai,
El pueblo se tira,
Y la mentira se estira.
La mentira se estira.

Yo no llegue,
A mi me trajieron para aca,
Y yo no escoji en donde naci.
Soy ciudadano del mundo.

Yo decido
Como me identifico,
En que idioma me explico,
Y con que lengua describo
A el universo que exploro
Al soñar y al despertar.

Al soñar y al despertar
Salgo siempre a navegar
Con un plumón y mil palabras
Traigo ojos como una camara
Para no olvidar.
Para ya no olvidar.

Mira, mira como cai,
El pueblo se tira,
Y la mentira se estira.
La mentira se estira.

07.09.14

Listen to the track here on SoundCloud.

Quien Se Acuerda?

Frausto 7 Comments

Here’s a song my friend, Pepetorias, and I created last week.

Quien Se Acuerda?

Quien se acuerda cuando fuimos?
Quien se acuerda lo que fuimos?
Lo que somos?
Seguiremos siendo?

Como una ola del mar,
Ó una piedra rolando
Que en el camino se encuentra.
Como una brisa del viento,
Una caricia y un beso
Del planeta y universo,
Un instante y un momento
Pues es lo mismo
Si nuestro amor es eterno.

Tu me quieres.
Yo te quiero.
Yo te amo.
Tu me amas,
Y como pájaros, los dos,
Brotamos alas
Para no enredarnos
Entre las ramas
De nuestro jardín.

Hasta convertirnos
En oxigeno para los dos
Para sobrevivir,
Para poder existir.

Sin ti yo no quiero seguir.

Tu me tienes.
Yo te tengo,
Y así vamos andar
Como unas olas del mar
Ó piedras rolando
Que en el camino se encontraron.

Quien se acuerda cuando fuimos?
Quien se acuerda lo que fuimos?
Cuando lo que somos,
Seguiremos siendo
Es lo único que importa.

Y nuestra pequeña familia.

07.02.14

Listen to song here.

purpose of meaning: wasted energy.

Frausto 24 Comments

He wants to know. Carlos wants to know. He wants to know where reality waits. The essence of humanity, wants and desires. Wants to know if any of this around him is real. And he has a million questions to ask, some of which, he hasn’t put into words yet.
Wonders what humanity is aching for? Is waiting for to return to original being and simple existence? He starts to think that the world’s a ball of pain, spinning out of control. Wants the pain to stop and the nightmares to go away.

Wants to feel complete,

And safe,

And secure and pretty and in control with a plan and direction like all the other men on their way to work.

Wants better pay and health insurance, a dental plan, a plan for better living, and a better body. Wants anything that does not remind him of now. Wants at all costs to avoid the collision for which humanity’s heading for.

But at the end of the day, he’s just an animal that shits, eats, and wants.

He wants to change his name, really change people, and change the world. Save the world, really save people, and save himself. He wants an original idea; a sacred thought to keep to himself, a secret away from humanity to hold precious and dear.

Wants someone to tell him well done or say good job. Wants someone to look over his money. Wants someone to listen to all his stories. Wants his own priest and psychiatrist. Wants to see the world. Wants to fuck everyone. Wants to fuck everyone in the world. Just wants something that’s real and his.

Doesn’t want more war. Doesn’t want anything that’s anyone else’s. Doesn’t want to take anything from anyone. Doesn’t want to be a capitalist, imperialist, or social climber.

Just wants a little knowledge and a little truth.

Wants to be engulfed by energy while meditating on an Asian mountaintop or dancing to rain gods on pyramids in Mexico. Wants it all, but he can’t have it all. Starts to think; he just wants something he can never have. Wants the Earth to whisper in his ear while life breathes into him.

Doesn’t want to be so average and so mediocre anymore, so generic like all the other plastic selves.

Wants to know. Wants to know.

Wants to know everything, why energy moves and meanings of everything.

Wants to know. Wants to know.

And needs to know, this he keeps repeating, shaking in bed, staring at plastic neon stars on his bedroom ceiling that he once thought were so cool, but now only aid his insomnia.

But he’s not trying to bring the stars down from the skies.

Starts thinking, everyone wants something. Something from everyone and everything for themselves. No one will take anything from me. And all thoughts seem so circular.

Wants to sleep now and rest.

But the universe has a secret; a meaning for breathing, and he

Wants to know.

What it is? Where he can find it? When will it appear? And whom does he need to talk to?

At the end of the day, he’s just an animal that shits, eats, and wants.

explanation. update.

Frausto 6 Comments

tv on city street

so by now, i should probably explain what i have been doing. with my last entry, i just completed posting the end to my third collection of poetry. the poems are all on here in reverse order i guess, but you can still check them out. perhaps one day, i’ll finally feel the poems and collections truly finished to publish them in book format. the three collections are titled: poetic ethnography, poetic syncretism, and notions: on politics, loss, love, and self. someone asked why i had posted a bunch of old poems, well mostly to get them out there, so theywouldn’t just wither and rot on my computer’s hardware, but i also simply because i can. the internet makes it that easy.

up next, i will be posting stories i’ve written since college usually around the same character or a very similar character, which i usually call, carlos castillo. sometimes the stories make sense as a continuation of each other, butsometimes the character is new and disjointed in ways i’ve never been able to reconcile. the character was developed in my creating writing courses, but grew out of my experiences afterwards.

i started working on the second person voice after returning from living and working abroad. i was substitute teaching, and had a lot of time, usually while everyone else was working. the character remained dark, and perhaps sometimes too dark, but that’s kind of how i like it. i probably wouldn’t write some of these stories today as i’m in a very different place in my life now. there’s a reason why my old blog was titled of the lonely lost dark empty.

carlos castillo has mostly been retired as a character in my stories, but perhaps, i’ll bring him back and continue to write stories with him as a character. i still can’t promise some of the new stories won’t be as dark.

spoiler alert: the author kills off our hero in the first act.

also throughout the collection of stories, i’ll be sprinkling poems, articles, photos, and songs, which may or may not have anything to do with the collection of stories and carlos castillo.

e.e. cummings has always been quite influential in my writing as were Joel Rose, author of Kill the Poor and Kill Kill Faster Faster; Rick Moody, author of Garden State and The Ice Storm; and Chuck Palahniuk, author of Fight Club and Survivor.

hope you all continue for the ride.

yours truly,

po’ E.T.