WORLD VOICES

FIVE POETS FROM LATIN AMERICA
  TRANSLATED BY ILAN STAVANS


Contents

Home
About the Authors

León de Greiff
White Moon

Jorge Luis Borges
Borges and I

Dulce María Loynáz
The Mirror
Love Is…
I Dream of Classifying…

Darío Jaramillo Agudelo
Love Poem 8
Salinger Speaks
Imaginary Biography of
     Graham Greene

Santiago Mutis Durán
May 5th Night

World Voices Home

The Literary Explorer
Writers on the Job
Books Forgotten
Thomas E. Kennedy
Walter Cummins
Web Del Sol



Dulce María Loynáz

I Dream of Classifying…

I dreamed of classifying
Good and Evil, like the wise men
classify butterflies:
I dreamed of pinning down Good and Evil
in the dark velvet
of a glass box…
Under the white
butterfly, a sign that read: “GOOD.”
Under the black
butterfly, a sign that read: “EVIL.”
But the white butterfly
wasn't Good, nor was the black butterfly
Evil… And between my two butterflies,
flying fresh, golden, infinite,
all the butterflies on earth!...

—Translated by Ilan Stavans