Why do this?

My father, José Luis Villamizar Melo, passed away in my home town of Cúcuta, Colombia, in August last year. The law and economics were Dad's profession, but literature, history and academia his passion. He wrote and published several books, articles and book chapters. The thing is that so many people have missed out on his work, particularly on his beautiful poetry, which he wrote in Spanish prior to the world wide web. So I thought, what a better way to keep Dad's legacy alive than to bring his writing beyond his world and share it with mine. That is why I am translating over 250 of my Dad's poems to English and publishing them here, one a day, Monday to Friday during 2011 (Dad, a family man, always believed that you shouldn't work on weekends).



Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Location at sunset (Ubicación en el atardecer)

Tonight I’m in a rush to go out for dinner and decided to translate a short poem, which I thought I could do in a few minutes.  Well, wrong!  Dad has managed to confuse me once again.  I’m going to be late now.  Here’s how I translated this poem from his book Urgent poetry (Poesía de urgencia).  Your interpretation is most welcome. 

Location at sunset (Ubicación en el atardecer)

A park bench
under the shade.

The afternoon goes by.

He, only he,
at the periphery of people
who travel along the afternoon murmuring.

There is a whole man
sitting now.

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