I Was Looking for Some Poetry in Spanish to Translate and Found This Nifty Little Piece by Aquiles Nazoa

I printed out a handful of Spanish language poems to translate by poets from various countries, and this one jumped out right away because it's rather transparent and pretty funny.

Plus, it's great because it's easy to memorize (hey, I'm an alcoholic and I can do it, so you can too!) and feels great on the tongue!

Nazoa was Venezuelan and a pretty nice guy by all accounts. He died relatively early (fifty-five) in an auto accident. He more than gnawed at the bit of censorship, and this poem gives a glimpse of that...

     Verbos irregulares:

Estos son unos verbos que, a paso de tortuga,
Yo conjugo,
Tú conugas,
Él conjuga…

Como sin garantías todo el mundo se inhibe.
Yo no escribo,
Tú no escribes,
Él no escribe...

Pues de escribir las cosas que uno tiene en el seso.
Yo voy preso,
Tú vas preso,
Él va preso.


This was my first version of this...

     Irregular Verbs

These are a few verbs, at tortoise-pace
I conjugate,
you conjugate,
he conjugates.

No constitutional rights? People clam up.
I don't write,
You don't write,
He doesn't write.

Cuz if you write what's in your head...
I go to prison,
You go to prison,
He goes to prison.


Then about five minutes later I said to myself, "Hey dummy, I bet you can keep that rhyme pattern, since you already almost did in the first stanza." And voila! I came up with the following, which I think is a better translation...


     Irregular Verbs

These are a few verbs, at tortoise-pace
I conjugate
you conjugate
he conjugates...

No constitutional rights? People go white.
I don't write
You don't write
He doesn't write.

Cuz if you write what you think...
I go to the clink
You go to the clink
He goes to the clink.




And it's interesting to note that those are actually irregular verbs, conjugation-wise.