Translated by Tomoyuki Endo and Forrest Gander
NOT NONFERROUS,
all colors mixed to render
the color “gray”.
The river bites into the land and
“geological memories” surface.
Plants with a grayish tint,
Tillandsia, or remnant snow.
Nothing swaying,
nothing wavering,
not a thing too complex to grasp.
Grayish prosaic phenomena,
afloat at the horizon, a cipher, a viper
raises its head.
In what country’s language does the word “subject”
hold two opposite meanings: “subject OF an action,”
and “subject TO an action”?
There’s no such limbo in human memories.
Still, “particles of iron” course through the blood
and all the color drawn from everything
mixes into a “gray”
that from nowhere
stirs up emotions.
Veritas Review 