Oda a mi iPod

Mi iPod es alucinante

Negro como boca de labo

Plateado metálico

Sonidos que calman

Muchos recuerdos

Escucho cada día

Blues tranquilo

Rock clásico

Melodías alternativas

Macanudo

Ode to my Socks

Mara Mori brought me

a pair of socks

that she knitted with her Shepard hands

two socks soft like rabbits.

In them I placed my feet

like in two cases

knitted with thread of

twilight and sheepskin.

Violent socks,

my feet were two fish of yarn,

two large sharks

of blue ultramarine

to go through one braid of gold,

two gigantic black birds,

two guns:

my feet were honored this way

by these heavenly socks.

They were so beautiful that for the first time

my feet appeared unacceptable,

like two decrepit firefighters,

unworthy of that fine embroidery,

of those luminescent socks.

Nevertheless I resisted the sharp

temptation of saving them like the school boys preserved their fireflies,

like the wise ones learned to collect

sacred documents,

I resisted the furious impulse of putting them

in a gold cage and giving them

bird seeds and pink melon pulp each day.

Like discoverers in the jungle

deliver the rarest green deer

to roast and they eat it with remorse,

they stretch their feet and I put away

the beautiful socks and them my shoes.

And this is the moral of my ode:

two times beauty is beauty,

and it that is good is doubly good,

when its about two socks

of yarn in the winter.

Ode to Bird Watching

Now

To look for birds

The heights of iron branches

In the wood

The thick

Fertility of the ground

Is wet

The world

Shines

Rain or dew, tiny

star

In the leaves

Fresh is the morning

Mother Earth

The Air

Is like the River

That shakes

The silence

Smells of rosemary

Of spare

And roots

Above

The crazy singing

The waterfall

Is the bird

Like

Of his throat

Smaller so that the finger

Could fall to the waters

Of his singing.

Faculty bright

power

invisible

torrent

of the music

in the leaves

holy conversation

clean wash fresh

is this day

sound

as desmier green

I buried

the shoes

in the mud

jump the little rivers

a bone

it bites me and a gust

of as a crystalline wave

they divide in my chest. Where

are the birds?

Be such time

that

switch in the foliage

or that shy bell

of greyish brown

or that out of place perfume? That leaf

that removes cinnamon covered

was a bird? Its dust of magnolia irritated

or its.

That fell echoing

that was a flight?

Oh small invisible cretins,

birds of the devil

they go

to the devil

with his rattle

with his useless feathers!

I who wanted only

to caress them,

to see them shining.

I don’t want

them in a display case

to see flashes of lighting embalmed,

I want to see them living,

I want to take their gloves of legitimate skin,

that none forget in the raws.

And to talk with them

in the shoulders

even though they leave me

like as true statues

immersed in whitewash.

Impossible.
They don’t touch,
they hear
like a celestial
whisper or movement,
they converse
with precision,
they repeat
their observations,
they boast
of how much they do,
they comment
how much they exist,
they dominate
closed sciences
like hydrography
and they know the certain science
of where they harvest
grain.

Video

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El Laberinto del Fauno

1. En el principio de la película, el carro de Carmen y Ofelia para en el
bosque. ¿Por qué? ¿Qué descubre Ofelia en el bosque?

Carmen estuvo enferma. Carmen quiso aire fresco. Ofelia encontró una estatua. También, encontró un hada.

2. ¿Cómo es Carmen? ¿Por que se casó con el capitán?

Carmen es la madre de Ofelia. Ella está embarazada.. Quiso asistencia médica para su bebé. El capitán tuvo dinero para la asistencia médica.

3. Describe el capitán. ¿Qué tipo de persona es? ¿Cómo son los hábitos
de él? ¿Cómo trata a Ofelia?

El capitán es antipático. Está de mal humor. Controla todos. No hace caso a Ofelia.

4. Describe el cuento que Ofelia dice a su hermano la primera noche.

Es una rosa azul en la parte superior de la montaña. Es muy bonita. Pero, la montaña es tú cubierta de espinas y veneno. Nadie pudo llegar a la rosa.

5. ¿Qué despierta a Ofelia la primera noche? ¿Dónde van? ¿Qué encuentra
Ofelia?

El hada despierta a Ofelia. Fueron al medio del laberinto. Descendieron la escalera. Ofelia encuentra al fauno.

6. Describe el fauno. ¿Qué dice a Ofelia? ¿Qué le da?

El fauno es azul. El fauno es muy viejo. Dice que Ofelia es una princesa. Da a Ofelia un libro.

7. Describe Ofelia, de persona y físicamente. ¿Cómo sabe ella que es la
princesa Moanna?

Ofelia es imaginitiva. Ella es baja. Ella es aventurera. Ella mira a su hombro.

8. ¿Qué es la primera prueba? ¿Cómo la completa?

Ofelia tuvo que ir en el tronco del árbol. Tuvo que poner tres piedras en la boca del sapo. Ofelia puso unos insectos en su mano con las piedras. El sapo lamió su mano con las piedras.

9. ¿Qué es la segunda prueba? Describe el monstruo.

Tuvo que usar la tiza para hacer una puerta. Usó la llave para tomar la daga. El monstruo es blanco. Tiene ojos en sus manos. El monstruo es alto.

10. ¿Cómo falla Ofelia? ¿Cómo escapa? ¿Qué dice Pan?

Ofelia comió las uvas. El monstruo despierta. Ella correr a la puerta. Hace una puerta en el techo.

11. ¿Qué da el fauno a Ofelia para la salud de su mamá? ¿Qué occurre
cuando el capitån descubre la cura? ¿Qué dice Carmen a su hija?

El fauno da a Ofelia un raíz. Ofelia pone el raíz en leche y debajo de la cama.
12. ¿Quién está ayudando a los rebeldes? ¿Cómo estån ayudando? ¿Qué
occurre en la cueva?

Mercedes está ayudando a los rebeldes. Mercedes es la hermana de un rebelde. Da a los rebeldes la llave para la puerta, la comida, y los suministros. El medico quita una pierna de un rebelde con una sierra.

13. ¿Qué hacen los rebeldes contra los fascistas? ¿Qué pasa al rebelde
sobreviviente? ¿Qué hace el doctor por él, y por qué?
Bomardearon un tren. Robaron los provisiones. El sobreviviente fue torturado. El doctor dio a él las drogas para el dolor y muere.

14. ¿Qué occurrió al doctor? ¿Por qué fue un error por el parte del
capitán?
El capitén encuentra los antibióticos. El capitán dispara el doctor. Fue un error porque Carmen está enferma. El doctor fue el solo persona que puede ayudar a Carmen.

15. ¿Qué es la última prueba? ¿Qué hace Ofelia?
Ofeila tuvo que traer a su hermano al laberinto. El fauno quiere tomar su hermano. Quiere tomar sangre de su hermano. Ofelia dice “no.”

16. ¿Cómo escapa Mercedes del capitán?
Mecedes corta las cuerdas con su cuchillo. Ella apuñala el capitán. Ella corre al bosque. Los rebeldes salvan a ella.

17 ¿Qué occurre al final de la pelicula? ¿Dónde está Ofelia? ¿Qué dice
el fauno?
Los rebeldes toman control del fuerte. Ofelia está en el laberinto. El capitán dispara a Ofelia. El fauno dice que Ofelia pasó la última prueba.

18. ¿Qué es tu opinion del cuento? ¿Es fantasía o realidad? ¿Es una
mezcla? ¿Cómo te sientes sobre el cuento?
El cuento es una mezcla. El raíz fue real. El capitán no pueda mirar el fauno. Es la realidad de Ofelia. Me gusta el cuento.

La Carta de Maria

Querido Bebé,
Lo siento para tragar las drogas. Yo quise ganar dinero para ti. Yo quise que tienes un vida mejor. Por favor, no haces los mismos erroresque hice. Tragando las drogas es muy peligrosa. Yo tuve que dejar a mi familia. Por favor, perdona a tu madre.

Maria

Maria, Llena Eres de Gracia, Preguntas

1. Describe Maria. ¿Cómo es físicamente? ¿Cómo es su personalidad?
Maria es alta. Ella es morena. Tiene ojos cafés. Maria es terca. Ella es independiente.

2. Describe el trabajo de Maria. ¿Qué hace ella? ¿Cómo es su jefe?
Maria trabaja en una fábrica de flores. Ella corta las hojas del ramo. Su jefe es insensiblo a sus empleados. Él es estricto. Él es de mal genio.

3. Describe la familia de Maria. ¿Cómo comprara a tu familia?
Su familia es todas mujeres. Ellas luchan contra una a otra. Su familia tiene cinco personas. Mi familia es principalmente hombres. Mi familia tiene nueve personas.

4. Describe el novio de Maria.
Juan es un majadero. Él es un desgraciado. Él no está enamorado con Maria. Él es un borracho. Él es bajo.

5. Describe el pueblo de Maria. ¿Cómo comprara a tu pueblo?
Su pueblo está en Colombia. El pueblo es pequeño. La fábrica es muy importante al pueblo. Mi pueblo es pequeño. La fábrica es muy importante a mi pueblo.

6. Describe Blanca, la amiga de Maria.
Blanca es baja. Ella es gorda. Ella es una partidaria. Ella es una mula.

7. ¿Quién es Franklin?
Franklin es un hombre de Colombia. Franklin dice a Maria sobre los negocios de las mulas. Franklin maneja una motocicleta. Maria se siente atraída a Franklin.

8. ¿Quién es Lucy? ¿Cómo ayuda a Maria?
Lucy es una mula. Lucy ayuda a Maria a practicar tragar. Lucy se muere en Nueva York. Lucy es matada en Nueva York.

9. Describe Javier.
Javier es un narcotraficante en Colombia. Javier es el jefe de la administración. Javier es simpático al principio. Javier es muy serio.

10. Describe el vuelo en el avión.
El vuelo tiene mucho tiempo. El vuelo es muy incómoda para las mulas. El vuelo es muy tenso. Maria tiene que retragar bolitas.

11. ¿Cómo escapa Maria de la aduana en Nueva York?
Los oficiales interrogan a Maria. Maria miente a los oficiales. Los oficiales solicitan un rayo x. Pero Maria está embarazada.

12. Describe la situación con los narcotraficantes en Nueva York.
Los narcotraficantes están enfadados porque una mula estuvo arrestada. Ellos esperan en el hotel para las bolitas. Los narcotraficantes son muy antisimpáticos. Lucy está enferma.

13. Describe la decisiónes que Maria después de escapar de los narcotraficantes.
Lucy es matada. Maria está asustada. Maria toma la heroína. Ella toma a Blanca consigo.

14. Describe la situación de la hermana de Lucy.
Ella vive en un apartamento pequeño. Ella vive con su esposo. Ella está embarazada. Ella es muy hospitalaria.

15. ¿Qué opinas tú de las decisiónes que Maria hace de su bebé? Explica.
Cuándo Maria traga bolitas, ella es mala. Su bebé podia ser dañado. Maria es descuidada al principio. En Nueva York, Maria es preocupada con su bebé.

16. ¿Qué hacen Maria y Blanca para resolver la situación de las drogas y de Lucy?
Ellas se ponen en contacto con los narcotraficantes. Ellas dan las drogas a los narcotraficantes. Ellas toman el dinero. Maria paga para el funeral de Lucy.

17. ¿Cómo sabe la hermana de Lucy que pasó a su hermana? ¿Qué es su reacción?
Don Fernando llama a la hermana. Él pregunta de los acuerdos de Lucy. La hermana está confusada. Ella ordena a Maria y Blanca a salir.

18. ¿Qué opinas tú final de la película?
No me gusta el final de la película. Hay preguntas sin contestar. ¿Qué pasa al bebé de Maria? ¿Qué pasa a la familia de Maria? ¿Adónde vive Maria?

19. Imagina los personajes en el futuro. ¿Cómo son?
Maria será deportada. Blanca será una mula. Carla dará a luz. Juan tomará cinco mujeres embarazadas. Javier será enfadado. Franklin será una mula.

Preguntas de Casa Tomoda

1. ¿Cómo es la casa?

La casa es espaciosa y antigua.

2. ¿Quién vive en la casa y quienes vivieron allí antes?

Los hermanos viven en la casa y toda la familia vivieron allí antes.

3. ¿Qué es la rutina de los hermanos?

La rutina es: levantarse a las siete, hacer la limpieza por la mañana, hacer almuerzo a las once, almorzar a mediodía.

4. ¿Por qué no se casaron?

Irene es particular y la novia de su hermano se murió.

5. ¿Qué pasara a la casa cuándo se mueren?

Sus primos la echarían al suelo para enriquecerse.

6. ¿Qué hizo Irene todo el día?

Aparte de su actividad matinal se pasaba el resto del día tejiendo en el sofá de su dormitorio.

7. ¿Qué tipos de cosas tejía ella?

Irene tejía tricotas para el invierno, medias para su hermano, mañanitas y chalecos para ella.

8. ¿Qué hizo el hermano los sabados?

Los sábados iba él al centro a comprarle lana.

9. ¿Qué buscaba en van?

Buscaba novedades en literatura francesa.

10. ¿Qué descubrio el hermano en el cajón?

El hermano descubrio pañoletas blancas, verdes, y lilas en el cajón.

11. ¿Por qué no tuvieron que ganarles la vida?

No necesitában ganarles la vida, todos los meses llegaba la plata de los campos e el diniero aumentaba.

12. ¿Qué opinas tú de la vida de los hermanos?

La vida de los hermanos era aburrida y un poco triste.

13. ¿Qué estaba hacienda el hermano cuando escuchó el sonido?

El hermano estaba yendo a poner al fuego la pavita del mate.

14. ¿Qué fue se reacción?

Se tiró contra la puerta y la cerró, y corrío el gran cerrojo.

15. ¿Qué dijo Irene que tuvieron que hacer?

Irene dijo, “tenremos que vivir en este lado.”

16. ¿Que tejía ella?
Ella tejía un chaleco grís.

17. ¿Que dejaron los hermanos en la parte tomada?
El hermano dejó su pipa de enebro y Irene dejó una botella de Hesperidina. El hermano dejó sus libros de literatura fracesca y Irene dejó unas carpetas y un par de pantufles.

18. ¿Que eran ventajas?
La limpieza se simplificó y se levantaron tardisimo. Irene estaba contenta porque le quedaba más tiempo para tejer.

19. ¿Cómo se sentian los hermanos?
Se divertían mucho, cada uno en sus cosas.

20. ¿Cómo empezaron a viver?
Empezaron a viver sin pensar.

21. ¿Que havia Irene en la noche?
Irene soñaba en alta voz en la noche.

22. ¿Que hacían para evitar el ruido?
Irene contaba canciones de curos, Y se ponian a hablar en voz mós alta.

23. ¿Dónde están los ruido durante la ultima noche?
Los ruidos están en la concina y en baño durante la última noche.

24. ¿Que traeron de la casa?
No traeron nada de la casa. Estaban con lo puesto.

25.¿ Por que tiró las laves a la alcautarilla?
Tiró las llaves a la alcantarilla por que toda la es tomada.

Traduccion de Casa Tomada

We liked the house because besides being spacious and old (today the old houses succumb to the most advantageous ale of their materials) it kept the memories of our great grandparents, paternal grandfather, our parents and all of our childhood.
Irene and I were in the habit of living alone in it, it was crazy then, that eight people could live in the house without getting in each other’s way. We did the cleaning in the morning, waking ourselves at 7:00, and at 11:00 I left Irene the last of the rooms to go over and I went to the kitchen. We ate lunch at 12:00, always punctual; there was nothing left to do except for a few dirty dishes. We were pleased to eat lunch thinking in the profound and silent house and how it was enough for us to keep the house clean. At times we came to believe that it was the house that did not allow us to marry. Irene rejected two candidates without any reasons, and Maria Esther died on me before we got around to being engaged. We entered our forty’s with the expressive idea that what we had, the simple and silent matrimony of siblings was necessary closure for the genealogy established by the great grandparents in our house. We would die there someday, our lazy and greedy cousins would remain with the house, only to knock it down to the ground to get rich with the land and the bricks; it would be better if we ourselves would turn it over fairly before it was too late.

Irene was a girl that would not annoy anybody. Apart from her morning activities, she spent the rest of the day knitting on the sofa in her room. I don’t know why she knit so much, I believe that women knit when they have an excuse to do nothing. Irene was not like that. She knit things always when it was necessary, sweaters for the winter, socks for me, robes and waistcoats for her. At times she knit a waistcoat and after it was unravelled in a moment because something didn’t please her; it was funny to see in the small basket the pile of rough wool resisting to lose the forms they’ve had for some hours. In Saturdays I went downtown to buy her wool; Irene had faith in my taste, she was pleased with the colors and I never had to return the skeins. I took advantage of those trips to take a stroll to the book store and ask vainly if there were any novels in French literature. Since 1939 nothing valuable arrived in Argentina.

But it is the house I’m interested in talking about, of the house and of Irene, because I don’t have importance. I ask myself what Irene would’ve done without her knitting. One can reread a book but when a pullover is finished, you can’t repeat without scandal. One day I found a lower drawer in a chest of drawers mande of camphor full of white, green, and lilac shawls. They were with mothballs, folded up like in a dry goods store; I didn’t have the courage to ask Irene what she thought to do with them. We didn’t earn money for ourselves, all of the months, silver arrived from the fields and the money added up. But for Irene, only the knitting entertained her, she showed marvellous skill, and two me, the hours passed by, seeing her hands were like silver-plated sprocket wheels, the needles going and coming and one or two baskets on the floor where the balls of yarn were constantly stirred. It was beautiful.

How could I froget the layout of the house. The dining room, a living room with tapestries, the library, and big bedrooms remained in the most secluded part which looks toward Rodríguez Peña. Only a corridor with its solid oak door separated that part from the front wing where there was a bathroom, kitchen, our bedrooms and the living room, connected to the bedrooms and the corridor. One entered the house through a hallway with majolica, and the inner door gave into the living room. When one entered the hallway, they opened the gate and passed to the livin room. It had at the side, the doores of our bedrooms, and the front corridor that went to the isolated part; going along the corridor one pushed the oak door and further along began the other side of the house, or one could turn left precisely before the door and follow a hallway that stretches from the kitchen to the bathroom. When the door was open, it showed that the house was very big; if not, it gave the impression of a condo, now we hardly moved; Irene and I lived always in this part of the house, we almost never went near the oak door, except to do the cleaning, well it’s incredible how dust collects on the furniture. Buenos Aires could be a clean city, but that is due to its inhabitants and nothing else. There is too much dust in the air, It hardly blows and dust settles into marble consoles between the rhombus doiley of macrome; it takes work to get it off with a duster, it flies and is suspended in the air and a moment later is deposited on the furniture and pianos.

I will always remember it with clarity because it was simple without useless circumstances. Irene was knetting in her bedroom, it was eight at night and it suddenly occured to me to put the mate kettle on the fire. I went by the corridor until i was infront of the half-closed oak door, and turned the corner that came to the kitchen when I heard something in the dining room or the library. The sound imprecise and quietly, like a scrape of a chair on a rug or a muffled whisper of conversation. I also heard it, at the same time or a second later where the end of the hallway connects to the farthest part up to the door. I threw myself against the door and before it was too late, I closed it, suddenly pushing my body; luckily the key was on our side and more over, I shut the big bolt for more security.

I went to the kitchen, warmed the kettled, and when I returned with the tray of mate I told Irene :

-I had to close the door of the hallway. They’ve taken the endpart.

She let the knitting fall and looked at me with grave tired eyes.

-Are you sure?

I nodded.

-Then- She said collecting the needles -we will have to live on this side.

I brewed the mate with a lot of care, but she took a bit of time to restart her work. I remember that she knit a grey waistcoat. I liked this waistcoat.

The first days seemed painful to us because we had both left many things that we had loved in the haunted part. My French literature books, for example, were all in the library. Irene longed for her doilies, a pair of slippers that covered her up. I felt my juniper and believe Irene thought about the the bottle of Hesperidina of many years. Often (but only in the first days) we closed some drawer of the dresser and looked at each other with sadness.

-It’s not here.

And it was one more thing of all the things that we had lost on the other side of the house.

But we also had an advantage. The cleaning was simplified so much that we could even wake up later, at 9:30 for example, it wasn’t even 11:00 and we were with arms crossed. Irene became accustomed to going with me to the kitchen and helped to prepare the lunch. We thought about it well, and this was decided: while I prepared the lunch, Irene would fix meals in order to eat cold in the night. We were happy because it was always annoying to have to abandon the rooms at dusk to put oneself to cook. Now it was enough for us with the table in Irene’s room and the dishes of cold cut meals.

Irene was happy because it left her more time to knit. I walked a little lost because of my books, but so I wouldn’t bother my sisterI reviewed my father’s stamp collection and it served me to kill time. We had a lot of fun. each one of us doing our own thing, almost always together in Irene’s room that was most comfortable. At times Irene said:

-Look at this stich that just came to me. Doesn’t it look like a clover?

A while later I placed before her eyes a little square of paper in order to the values of any stamp of Eupen and Malmédy. We were good and little by little we started not to think. One can live without thinking.

(When Irene talked in her sleep I woke up immediately. I never could get used to the voice of a statue or parrot, a voice that came from the dreams and not of the throat. Irene said that my dreams consisted of grand gestures that at times made the comforter fall. Even though our bedrooms were separated by the living room, at night we could hear any little noise in the house, we could hear breathing, coughing, and we could predict the jangling of the watchman’s keys, such we our frequnt bouts of insomnia.

Apart from that, all was quiet in the house. Daily there were domestic rumors, the metalllic clanking of the knitting needles, a rustling to the flipping pages of the stamp album. The oak door I think I have said was solid. In the kitchen and the bathroom the parts that touched the haunted part, we talked in a loudr voice. Or Irene sang lullabies. In the kitchen there was too much sound from crockery and glass for the other sound to burst in it. Very seldom di we allow the silence, but when we turned in the bedrooms and living room, then we walked around more slowly in order to not bother ourselves. I think for that reason at night wjen Irene began to talk in her sleep, I woke up right away.)

It was almost like doing the same thing every day exceptfor the consequences. At night I was thirsty and before we went tobed I said to Irene to go to the kitchen to serve me a glass of water. From the door of the bedroom (Irene was knitting), I heard the noise in the kitchen; one time in the kitchen or one time in the bathroom because the bend of the hall muffled the sound. My abrupt manor called attention from Irene and she came to my side without saying a word. We stayed listening to the noises noting clearly that was from the side of the oak door, in the kitchen and in the the bathroom, or in the same hall were the noise started, almost on our side.

We didn’t even look at each other. I grabbed Irene’s arm and made her run with me as far as the inner door, without looking back. The noises we would hear more strong but always muffled to our backs. I closed the inner door suddenly and we stayed in the hall. Now nothing could be heard.

-They’ve taken this part- said Irene.

The knitting hung on the hands and the threads wents as far as the inner door and lost underneath. When she saw that the balls had remained in the other side she let go of the knitting without looking at it.

-Did you have time to bring anything?- I asked her uselessly

-No, nothing.

We were with what we had on. I remembered 15000 pesos in the closet of my bedroom. It was too late now. Since I still had my wristwatch, I saw that it was 11:00 at night. I put my arm around Irene (I believe that she was crying) and we went out to the street. Before taking ourselves far away, I was sad, I closed the door of the entrance well and threw the key in the sewer drain. It wasn’t as if it would occur to some poor devil to rob and go in the house, that time and with the haunted house.

Receta de Republica Dominica

Receta de Republica Dominica, originally uploaded by andrewcol.