Pau Domènech

- Spain -

Born in 1984, he has a degree in Translation and Interpreting, a postgraduate degree in Literature Translation and a postgraduate degree in Proofreading (in Catalan). He now works as a proofreader in the media (Diari Ara). He has translated into catalan the following books: Darrere les barricades, John Lagdon-Davies, Angle Editorial (2009) and Abraham Lincoln, James M. McPherson, La Mansarda (2013).

More about the translator

Translated by Pau Domènech

Battlefield / Camp de batalla

I hide in the attic when the enemy comes. I discover an army of hairs on my forearm, two loaded cannons on my chest and my nails sharp. I know, truce doesn’t mean peace, there are barricades in flames in my body and I want the scars there, in the shape of animals and low clouds, so I can check them without ripping them open. Crouching under old stuff, I see it: running away from war means having all the battles pending.
Translated by Pau Domènech
M’amago a les golfes quan arriba l’enemic. Em descobreixo un exèrcit de pèls a l’avantbraç, dos canons carregats als pectorals i les ungles esmolades. Ho sé, la treva no fa pau, al cos hi tinc barricades en flames i hi vull les cicatrius, amb formes d’animals i núvols baixos, que pugui repassar sense esquinçar-les. Ajupida sota els trastos vells, ho sé: fugir de la guerra vol dir tenir totes les batalles pendents.
Bastard Ulisses / Ulisses cabró

I kept waiting
for Our Lady to appear.
Our Lady of El Remei
Our Lady of Montserrat
The Angel Gabriel
that scared me so much.
If they don’t bring them to me
let the tide rise
and take cowards away
dragged with rocks.
Rocks I had already thrown
to the long-legged showgirl
while Ulisses whatched
the scene in his underwear.
Meanwhile, I lie in the sand
waiting for his return
to beg him
to fill my womb
with power
imprison the sperm
to make so much sand
vanish.
And it was even worse
because they paved
the beach.
Translated by Pau Domènech
Em vaig quedar esperant
que s’aparegués la verge
la del Remei
la Moreneta
l’àngel Gabriel
que tanta por em feia
i si no me’ls porten
que pugi la marea
que s’endú els covards
arrossegats amb pedres.
Pedres que ja li havia llançat
a la vedet de cames llargues
mentre Ulisses mirava
en calçotets l’escena.
Tot mentre jeia a la sorra
esperant que tornés
per suplicar-li
que m’omplís de poder
el ventre
i empresonar l’esperma
per fer desaparèixer
tanta arena.
I encara va ser pitjor
perquè van asfaltar
la platja.
Airbnb / Airbnb

At home, I get soaked.
Even outside on the street
there are leaks.
I dry myself
inside your nostrils
and I manage to breath
under your wild armpit.
I know every part of you.
I have shelterd in your foreskin
a thousand times.
I have hanged up your clothes
on the folds of your brain
and I have swung
from your vertebrae.
The housing is decent
but now you say
you don’t give
any more tourist licenses.
Translated by Pau Domènech
A casa em mullo.
Fins i tot al carrer
cauen goteres.
M’eixugo dins
els forats
del teu nas
i és a l’aixella feréstega
on agafo aire.
Et conec totes les parts.
M’he refugiat 1000 cops
al teu prepuci.
T’he estès la roba
als plecs del cervell
i m’he penjat
de les vèrtebres.
L’habitatge és digne
però ara dius
que ja no dones
llicències turístiques.
Outside / El defora

I have heard you moan and sneeze, heard the extractor hood, the sound of the light turned on for too long. You are smoking again. I have shrunk into the screen with my back bent and dug into the pomegranate as if it were somebody else’s virtual body. You have moved the landing. We have decided to jail ourselves together, nevertheless I know the distance from up close. Walls are made of paper and crumple as if there was a wormhole on the other side. We cloned ourselves with Photoshop amb decorated everything with antennas and clothes pegs. We have accepted the disappointment. We now know it is not the sky, it is a hotel, and it’s raining outside. Nonetheless, my love, nothing will happen to us in here, not even finding ourselves.
Translated by Pau Domènech
T’he sentit el gemec, l’esternut, la campana extractora, el soroll de la llum encesa massa estona. Has tornat a fumar. M’he encongit dins la pantalla amb l’esquena arquejada i he furgat la magrana com si el cos virtual d’algú altre. Has mogut de lloc el replà. Hem decidit engarjolar-nos juntes, i tanmateix conec de més a prop la llunyania. Les parets són de paper i es rebreguen com un forat de cuc a l’altra banda. Ens hem clonat amb photoshop i ho hem decorat tot amb antenes i pinces d’estendre. Hem acceptat el desengany. Ja sabem que no és el cel, que és un hotel, i defora plovisqueja. Tanmateix, amor, no ens passarà res aquí dins, ni tan sols trobar-nos.
In dry land / A secà

Gorse
as it were nonsense
as it were lightning and thunder.
She refers to every time
she asked for abundance
while burning stubble.

Please, desire, take this
always wanting to give myself up
to every dry tongue out of me,
‘cause in dry land, thirst brings thirst.

She means the soil.

On the windowsill of the world
lightning and thunder
nonsense
identical gorse.

Fertile no longer means
using your hand as a visor.
Translated by Pau Domènech
Argilagues
com qui diu ximpleries
com qui diu llamps i trons.
Es refereix a les vegades
que demanà abundància
cremant rostolls.

Treu-me, desig, sisplau
aquest voler abocar-me sempre
sobre cada llengua seca
que a secà la set fa set.

Es refereix a la terra.

A l’ampit del món
llamps i trons
ximpleries
argilagues idèntiques.

Fèrtil ja no és posar la mà
en forma de visera.
Words kill / La paraula mata

La vida se nos escapa desde el momento en que empezamos a hablar.
Gabriel Giorgi i Fermín Rodríguez

Language is a murder
when you say, for instance,
let’s repopulate the discourse
of the driest plain
when I say, for instance,
an eagle, and nothing more
so I don’t miss its flight.

Speaking means dying through the mouth
what cannot be said is a trap
for instance, when you pretend to be
conducting a classical music concert
for instance, when I wait
my espectres in a line.
I don’t want any more explanations
because when we told ourselves
we disappeared
                                          first the movement
                                          then the charge
                                          and, finally, the house.
Translated by Pau Domènech
La vida se nos escapa desde el momento en que empezamos a hablar.
Gabriel Giorgi i Fermín Rodríguez

La paraula és un assassinat
quan dius, per exemple,
repoblem el discurs
de la plana més seca
quan dic, per exemple,
una àguila i no dic res més
per no perdre’m el vol.

Parlar és morir per la boca
i l’indicible és trampa
per exemple, quan fas veure amb els dits
que dirigeixes un concert de música clàssica
per exemple, quan espero
els meus fantasmes en filera.
No vull més explicacions
perquè en dir-nos
vam desaparèixer
                                          primer el moviment
                                          després l’envestida
                                          i, finalment, la casa.
Stigmergy / Estigmèrgia

There are 100-meter long lichens and rivers that are tentacles that may never discharge,
in this salt flat that has turned skin into flysch.
There are balloons made of intestines that inflate and deflate depending only on two things: love and suffering, love and suffering. In fact, it always and only depends on that.
In a prehistorical future filiations multiply, filiations are retained, and animals embrace and brake their nails and eat each other like goliards.
There are mountains that only erode.
There is an always-shady side that sustains it all. Limpets change their sex among genital flowers.
We think there’s a wall on the horizon and that craters are concave,
that oxygen will suffice,
but we are always, right now, symbiosis.
Translated by Pau Domènech
Hi ha líquens de 100 metres i rius que són tentacles que potser mai desemboquen enmig d’aquest salar que ha convertit la pell en flysch.
Hi ha globus de tripa que s’inflen i es desinflen depenent només d’això, de l’amor i el patiment, de l’amor i el patiment, en realitat, sempre, només depèn d’això.
En un futur prehistòric es multipliquen les filiacions, s’embassen les filiacions, i allà s’abracen els animals desunglant-se i engolint-se com goliards.
Hi ha muntanyes que no fan més que erosionar-se.
Hi ha una cara sempre obaga que suporta el pes. Les pagellides canvien de sexe entre flors genitals.
Pensem que hi ha una paret a l’horitzó i que els cràters són còncaus,
que amb l’oxigen n’hi haurà prou,
però constantment, ara mateix, fem simbiosi.

Pau Domènech

- Spain -

Translated by Pau Domènech

Battlefield / Camp de batalla

Bastard Ulisses / Ulisses cabró

Airbnb / Airbnb

Outside / El defora

In dry land / A secà

Words kill / La paraula mata

Stigmergy / Estigmèrgia