The Untranslatable: Duende

By Thomas Page

The Untranslatable

This is a series of poems of words that do not directly translate into English. I have tried to capture the essence of the word in a poem.

 

There is a quality to a performance

Of someone making themself into something

That is beyond the usual associates of the self

That can last beyond the final curtain

Or the last brushstroke

Or the ultimate footstep ringing through the hall

Repeating like a riff that jolts through your body

Becoming another system of the corporeal

Vital as the repository or the circulatory

Carrying the life-force through the being—

Being more than an animal in the forceful world

A being can mold memories out of clay

And histories out of pigments

That can speak to the heart and mind

Eons and eons and eons and eons

Since their last breath—

The Dance Eternal.   

Language: Spanish