Rodrigo Círigo | Tyler Gebauer
A Piece of Bacon
Translated by Tyler Gebauer
if you were a piece of bacon
and you crunched salty between my teeth
and my fingers glistened with your fat
and ferocious you adorned hamburgers
lentil stews
eggs easy over
if you were a piece of bacon
and you slipped
between the smoke and heat of frying pans
and your red-white thirst and your saliva
governed over triglycerides
the echoes of an artery as it collapses
if the pig you must have been
could still be heard
between the frozen cuts of meat
your snout a crackle of flowers
the mud the sun the damp
happy pig among pigs
more singeing than speaking
if you were a piece of bacon
we’d be able to love each other, isn’t that right?
you would fit in the palm of my hand
Pedazo de tocino
si fueras un pedazo de tocino
y crujieras salado entre mis dientes
y mis dedos brillaran con tu grasa
y adornaras feroz las hamburguesas
las sopas de lenteja
los huevos estrellados
si fueras un pedazo de tocino
y resbalaras
entre el humo el calor de las sartenes
y tu sed rojiblanca y tu saliva
gobernaran los triglicéridos
los ecos de una arteria al derrumbarse
si el cerdo que por fuerza hubieras sido
pudiera aún oírse
entre las carnes congeladas
tu trompa un crepitar de flores
el lodo el sol las humedades
cerdo feliz entre los cerdos
más quemadura que palabra
si fueras un pedazo de tocino
podríamos querernos ¿no es así?
cabrías en la palma de mi mano
“Pedazo de tocino” was originally published in Spanish in Revista de la Universidad de México.
Rodrigo Círigo is a writer and translator from Mexico City whose work has been published in Revista de la Universidad de México, Punto de Partida, and Punto en línea. He has received a scholarship for his writing from the Foundation for Mexican Letters, as well as the Mexican Secretariat of Culture’s Young Creators program. He is currently a Ph.D. candidate at the London School of Economics and Political Science.
Tyler Gebauer is a literary translator from Minneapolis, U.S.A., whose translations have been published in Packingtown Review, The Tiger Moth Review and SORTES, among others. Tyler Gebauer translated “A Piece of Bacon” for publication with the author’s permission. You can read his other translations at: https://www.tgtranslation.com/
