I was introduced to Arturo Montero Vega in a poetry translation course at Webster University in 1998. Vega was born in Costa Rica in 1924, and I have found it difficult to find much online information about him.
In one academic online document, Vega is lumped under the following terms: An “avant-garde” poet of the first (bifurcated) generation, born between 1917 and 1927. “In thematic terms, these generations deal with re-linked with the longing for communication, the dissolution of meaning and the condition of being before the world” (Web, 5 January 2018).
I was drawn tho Vega’s “Quierro Darte” in college and I gave this poem my best translation effort here. I hope you enjoy my translation, which is ultimately, hopefully, close to the sound and sense Arturo Montero Vega was attempting to convey to us.
I want to Give You
(Translation of Arturo Montero Vega’s “Quiero Darte” by Donald Lindsey)
I want to give you something,
a heroic act,
a squeeze of the hand.
I want to give you the leaves of your body,
the wood of your soul,
the bread of your table.
I want to give you a smile,
a gesture,
anything at all.
© by Donald Lindsey
(May 18, 1998) All Rights Reserved
Continue to see Vega’s “Quiero Darte.”
