Numbers
This is a poem written by Kin-Ta-Ni-Ya (Luis Quintanilla), a Mexican poet member of the generation of Los Estridentistas (Carleton Beals translated the name as The Noise Makers), influenced in the 1920s by the Italian Futurists, inspired by radio, electricity, technology and jazz. The translation is by JJA friend, writer, broadcaster, saxophonist and bandleader Alain Derbez, of Vera Cruz, Mexico -- "I presented this one in the Todo se escucha en el silencio's concert during the Guelph Jazz Festival," he writes. "Perhaps you could post it with the complete explanation."
translation copyright © 2002 Alain Derbez

Numbers

Counting 1!...2!...3!
Moon has fallen down
Counting 1!

1 star
lost the last trip
and had to go by foot

Kentucky
3 black men were linched
and died in 1 blue wail.

I poet and conductor
Balances on the cables
of the Interplanetarium 3326.

Paris
1 English has just killed her lover
On room 723.

1934
for a 100 more years
men will carry on dancing jazz

Mexico
To calm down that red national anxiety
The had to inject morphine in all the city buildings.

 
Kin-Ta-Ni-Ya (1900-1970)


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