There Was No Plot

Coral Bracho’s (b. 1951) early work altered the landscape of Mexican poetry. She is the recipient of many honors and awards, including the Aguascalientes National Poetry Prize, Xavier Villaurrutia Award, and a Guggenheim Fellowship. Bracho has collaborated with several painters and is a member of Mexico’s National Organization of Artists. Forrest Gander’s most recent books are the verse collection Be With (New Directions) and The Galloping Hour: French Poems by Alejandra Pizarnik (with Patricio Ferrari). He translated Bracho’s collected poems, Firefly under the Tongue (New Directions). POETRY There Was No Plot by Coral Bracho There were neither plots nor characters, only places. Neighborhoods sliced in half. Terraces and corridors between roofless rooms. Profiles only. Staggered spaces. Far off a group was sucked up into its own restlessness: the after-dinner conversation, the waiting, shuffle between one door and another, shifts in posture; remarks that from here, where you hurried to leave, were already beyond hearing. Translation from the Spanish By Forrest Gander WORLDLIT.ORG 13 PHOTO: ANALUSIE GAMBOA / UNSPLASH

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