Indifference/La indiferencia.

Roemmers, Alejandro Guillermo

La indiferencia

 Dame el odio que mata de un disparo,
 el fuego de los celos, la mentira,
 la duda que consume en una pira
 y no esta indiferencia y desamparo.

 Dame una lucha cruel y sin reparo;
 que te asignen los cielos en tu ira
 el ojo que fulmina cuando mira
 y reitera su flecha si me paro.

 La indiferencia mata de soslayo,
 descargas tu fulgor sin ver el dano.
 Olvidas que fue octubre, enero y mayo

 y aun espero a la sombra del castano.
 Tu impasible, me quemas como un rayo
 que acierta al corazon ano tras ano.

Indifference

 Give me the hate that kills with a single shot,
 the ardor of jealousy, the lie,
 the doubt that perishes in a funeral pyre
 and not this indifference and neglect.

 Give me a cruel and unmitigated fight;
 may the heavens grant you in your rage
 an eye that strikes down when it gazes
 and repeats its piercing arrow if I pause.

 Indifference kills obliquely,
 you unleash your fiery wrath, not seeing the harm.
 You forget that it was October, January, and May

 and even as I await under the shadow of the chestnut tree.
 You, unmoved, sear me like a bolt of lightning
 that targets the heart year after year.

Alejandro Guillermo Roemmers was born in Buenos Aires in 1958 and began writing at an early age. During his adolescence he moved to Spain, where, at the age of sixteen, he received the Segundo Premio de Poesia from the Autonomous University of Madrid. His first collection of verse, Sonadores, So'nad (1982), presents poems he wrote from ages twelve to sixteen. His other volumes include Ancla fugaz (1995), Espana en mi (1996), Mas alia (2001), Poesias eligidos (2006), and Como la arena (2006). Among Roemmers's many honors are the Cultura Viva prize and California State University's Hispanic Literary & Cultural Institute's AIba de America award. Roemmers is currently vice president of the Argentine Foundation for Poetry and honorary president of the American Association of Poetry.