My Index of Unpublishable Translations

I love working on translations. To me, it's a deliciously deep, rich, intimate way of reading. I get absorbed. Sometimes I produce English versions I'm actually proud of. But I can't do anything with them, because you need permission from the copyright holders of the original texts, and who is going to say yes to me? I'm a nobody with no qualifications. Just a love of the process. So this is just here to remind myself that I do good work sometimes.

So far, everything here is translated from Spanish. But I think I'm getting to the point where I could try some small things in German later this year.

  • Cecilia Absatz
    • La siesta — a short story, trans. January 2012
    • La teta — a short story, trans. January 2012
    • Un ballet de bailarinas — a short story, trans. January 2012
  • Delmira Agustini
    • La barca milagrosa — a poem, trans. January 2012
  • Octavio Armand
    • Braille para mano izquierda — a poem, trans. January 2012
    • Poema con piel — a poem, trans. January 2012
  • Ernesto Cardenal
    • Oración por Marilyn Monroe — a poem, trans. January 2012 — I really liked this one. I read it out loud at a poetry reading in Jonesboro, Arkansas once.
  • Julio Cortázar
    • Axolotl — a short story, trans. before 2011
    • Las Ménades — a short story, trans. before 2011 — I've thought about this story often since 2016. There's a manifestation of crazed insatiability in this story that resonates lately.
    • Reunión — a short story, trans. before 2011 — I know I have a version of this story somewhere, but I... can't find it? WTF?
  • Enrique Lihn
    • Barro — a poem, trans. January 2012
  • Gabriel García Márquez
    • En este pueblo no hay ladrones — a short story, trans. before 2011
    • La luz es como el agua — a short story, trans. January 2012 — What a lovely little story.
    • Un día de éstos — a short story, trans. before 2011
  • Andrea Maturana
    • Yo a las mujeres me las imaginaba bonitas — a short story, trans. before 2011
  • Gabriela Mistral
    • Decálogo del artista — a poem, trans. January 2012
  • Pablo Neruda
    • Veinte poemas de amor y una canción desesperada — an entire chapbook of poems, translated in spurts between November 2011 and August 2016 — I am so proud of this collection. I need to check whether it has passed into the public domain since the last time I touched it. Poems include:
      • I. Cuerpo de mujer — trans. December 2011
      • II. En su llama mortal — trans. January 2013 and January 2016
      • III. Ah vastedad de pinos — trans. January, April, and August 2012
      • IV. Es la mañana llena — trans. May 2013, May 2014, and April 2015
      • V. Para que tú me oigas — trans. November 2011
      • VI. Te recuerdo como eras — trans. January 2012
      • VII. Inclinado en las tardes — trans. November 2011 — I'm particularly proud of how I handled a couple of really tricky lines in this one.
      • VIII. Abeja blanca — trans. August 2012
      • IX. Ebrio de trementina — trans. January 2016
      • X. Hemos perdido aun — trans. January 2016
      • XI. Casi fuera del cielo — trans. January and February 2016
      • XII. Para mi corazón — trans. December 2013 and April 2015
      • XIII. He ido marcando — trans. January 2016 — Holy shit, one of my favorites. But really just because I'm a sucker for that opening image.
      • XIV. Juegas todos los días — trans. November 2011 — Another one I'm very proud of.
      • XV. Me gustas cuando callas — trans. January 2016
      • XVI. En mi cielo al crepúsculo — trans. January 2016 — This is effectively a translation of a paraphrase of a translation of a Rabindranath Tagore poem. That's a big game of telephone.
      • XVII. Pensando, enredando sombras — trans. January and February 2016
      • XVIII. Aquí te amo — trans. December 2011 — I forgot how vast and damp and heartbreaking this one is.
      • XIX. Niña morena y ágil — January and February 2016
      • XX. Puedo escribir — trans. January 2012 — This is such an obvious poem to love, but I love it anyway.
      • Una canción desesperada — trans. January and August 2012 — I feel like I knocked this one out of the park.
  • Montserrat Ordóñez
    • Una niña mala — a short story, trans. January 2012 — I struggled with this one. I wasn't connecting with the voice at all.
  • Nicanor Parra
    • Solo de piano — a poem, trans. January 2012
  • Juan Rulfo
    • La cuesta de las comadres — a short story, translated back in... 2007? Is that possible? — One of my favorite short stories. I think about the ending more often than you'd expect. I would love to do all the stories in this book (El Llano en llamas) someday. That would be a cool collection to have done.
  • Jorge Teillier
    • Puente en el sur — a poem, trans. January 2012
  • Raúl Zurita
    • La marcha de las cordilleras — a poem, trans. January 2012

By Jen. Published February 17, 2026.