When I had finished the broththe owner of the food stall came up to me.I looked like a hungry man to her,but I’m really just a sad and skinny one:“If you want, you can order the main course,young man. Don’t worry about the money.” I thanked her, embarrassed.I didn’t want to be rude,but the melancholy mammal I am eats just enough to not faint.Outside,the windknocked over a little metal sign.The noise turned our heads and we saw that it was rainingon the opposite corner,but not on ours.The daughter of one of the cookswent running to make surewe weren’t dreaming. I followed her.So did the owner, the cooks,and the customers who were still around.We stood there for two or three minutes, drywatching the rain.
One day, around 5
Iván Palacios Ocaña
Translated from the Spanish
Feature Date
- June 16, 2021
Series
- Translation
Selected By
Share This Poem
Print This Poem
Copyright © 2021 by Iván Palacios Ocaña.
English Translation Copyright © 2021 by Noah Mazer.
All rights reserved.
Reproduced by Poetry Daily with permission.
https://www.asymptotejournal.com/poetry/ivan-palacios-ocana-little-humiliations/
Iván Palacios Ocaña was born in Oaxaca, Mexico in 1992 and studied Literature at the National Autonomous University of Mexico. He is the author of Cosas inútiles y otros poemas (Cultura UNAM), which won the Premio de Poesía Joven, and Nostalgia de Tacubaby (Editorial Matrerita). He reads astrological charts on request and teaches mini workshops on wabi-sabi and poetry.
Noah Mazer (New York, 1997) is a poet-translator. His first book-length translation, Belén Roca’s Infrarealist Magic, is forthcoming from woe eroa. He keeps a translation blog at noahmazer.com.
January 2021
Taipei City
Editor-in-Chief
Lee Yew Leong
Assistant Managing Editors
Daljinder Johal
Malak Khalil
Marina Martino
Samuel Miller
Janet Phillips
Lindsay Semel
Poetry Editor
Lee Yew Leong
Winner of the 2015 London Book Fair’s International Literary Translation Initiative Award, Asymptote is the premier site for world literature in translation. We take our name from the dotted line on a graph that a mathematical function may tend toward, but never reach. Similarly, a translated text may never fully replicate the effect of the original; it is its own creative act.
Our mission is simple: to unlock the literary treasures of the world. To date, our magazine has featured work from 105 countries and 84 languages, all never-before-published poetry, fiction, nonfiction, drama, and interviews by writers and translators such as J. M. Coetzee, Patrick Modiano, Herta Müller, Can Xue, Junot Díaz, Ismail Kadare, David Mitchell, Anne Carson, Haruki Murakami, Lydia Davis, Ann Goldstein, and Deborah Smith.
Poetry Daily Depends on You
With your support, we make reading the best contemporary poetry a treasured daily experience. Consider a contribution today.
