Àvia Magdalena

Un altre hivern no t'ha vençut l'absència.
La posta tornarà i és com si fossis
encara la cansada silueta
que es deixa posseir per un somrís
a l'hora de besar-se, aquella mà
que encén l'espelma del rebost i malda
per treure'n les ampolles o cireres
sagnants o l’escomesa del terrible
dolç de la confitura.
Vivim mentre qualcú roman als porxos
indemnes que bastírem
un dia, enfront del temps; i l'alba nostra
és el present que som a dins uns ulls
lleials en caure el vespre.

© Antoni Vidal Ferrando
De: Bandera Blanca
Proa, 1994
Producción de Audio: Institut Ramon Llull

Grandmother Magdalena

Another winter has not vanquished your absence.
The sunset will come back and it is as if you were
still the weary silhouette
that submits to being possessed by a smile
on being kissed, that hand of yours
that lights the larder candle and labours
to bring out bottles or blood-red
cherries or the assault of the terrible
sweetness of your jam.
We live as long as someone remains in the unmarred
arcades that we constructed
one day with time before us; and our dawn
is the present that we are in loyal
eyes when night falls.

Translated by Julie Wark