Omar García Obregón: “Just Another Yellow House”

 

 

Translated and read by Parvati Nair (Queen Mary University of London)

 

JUST ANOTHER YELLOW HOUSE

 

It was the labyrinth of a path

That would lead to Istanbul,

Or was that the path

Of a body turned to goods

On offer to the highest bidder?

Dirty pretty things, hidden business.

 

However, they have whitewashed the yellow house

To archive all evidence

As the iniquity of urban myth

In the backroom of memory.

An interstice shelters another truth.

 

No one sees. No one listens.

Amnesia predominates,

With no exit to the sea.

So tyrannical is history,

The perennial peace offering.

 

 

UNA CASA AMARILLA MÁS

 

Era el dédalo de un camino

que llevaría hasta Estambul,

o ¿era ese el camino

de un cuerpo convertido en mercancía

disponible al mejor postor?

Dirty pretty things, negocios ocultos.

 

Mas ya encalaron la casa amarilla

para archivar toda evidencia

como iniquidad de leyenda urbana

en el cuarto de atrás de la memoria.

Un intersticio alberga otra verdad.

 

Nadie ve. Nadie escucha.

Predomina la amnesia,

sin ninguna salida al mar.

Qué tirana es la historia,

la sempiterna paz.

 

De Fronteras: ¿el azar infinito? [Borders: An Infinite Game of Dice?] (Leiden: Bokeh, octubre 2018)

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