Fernando Molano Vargas, translated by Jeanine Legato
"From My Window"
Fernando Molano Vargas, translated by Jeanine Legato

From My Window

In earshot of their dreams silent
and docile
as oft do the damned
from the lip of the curb
rise the backsides
of two boys in love

And hidden behind the cars
rather begrudgingly
joined in a farewell—
beneath their pants the desire
lies in wait like an outlaw
for the youth
subsumed in an embrace

Slow the strides
the stubborn eyes that look back
as they point toward home—
safe from night
will they stroke themselves in their rooms
alone
half-naked
smiling beneath the blankets
scared-like?
7 p.m.:
that hour when mothers
stash their children

"At Dawn..."
Fernando Molano Vargas, translated by Jeanine Legato

At Dawn…

At dawn
some blocks from the bar
is the park

Standing in front of a tree
the boy who didn’t dance with me
offers it the gift of his urine:
the moon glimmers
over the old trunk
Very close to the tree
as if to tell it a secret
that doesn’t include me

"Caught"
Fernando Molano Vargas, translated by Jeanine Legato

Caught

What luck
at home they found
the love notes with which you
just for me
spin your web

By now dad will have heard
and it won’t be long before they come at us
like blinded dogs
with some abomination—
let’s run then
round that corner

Before they catch us
take these:
they’re my favorite marbles
my jax
my spitball launcher
and my rock collection
here, my Jet candy collectibles
and inside here
the poets I love most
my birth certificate
my baptism picture
take all my stuff:
my old boyish pleasures
and my dumb passions
that junk that I am now, and this, my name
—above all take my heart
stuff them good in your pockets

Because I’m vulnerable still and they’ll try to
destroy them—
don’t let them take them from you

Fernando Molano Vargas was born in Bogotá, Colombia, in 1961. He studied Linguistics and Literature at Universidad Pedagógica, and Film and Television Studies at Universidad Nacional. In 1987 he won a national short-story contest sponsored by Proartes in the city of Cali. Between August 1989 and April 1990, he wrote Un beso de Dick, submitting it in 1992 to a Medellín Chamber of Commerce literary contest, which it won. In 1995 he received a creative fund grant from Colcultura to write Vista desde una acera, which remained unpublished until 2012. Before his death in 1998, Molano saw his poetry collection Todas mis cosas en tus bolsillos published by the Universidad de Antioquia under the guidance of the author Héctor Abad Faciolince. He died the same year from complications of AIDS, as his partner Diego Molina had years before him.

Jeanine Legato specializes in Colombian literary and academic translation into English, particularly pertaining to issues of human rights, armed conflict, and peacebuilding. She holds a BA in English from the University of Vermont and an MA in Cultural Studies from Universidad Javeriana.

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