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Another April, Too Cruel José Mármol

 

“Another April, Too Cruel” by José Mármol, translated by Eileen O’Connor

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Sep 16, 2025 at 6:07 AM
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September 16, 2025

translated from the Spanish by Eileen O’Connor


     To all the victims of the collapse
    of the Jet Set, in memoriam


A smell of recently scattered benzene,
of the defeat of the landscape in the middle of a clear night,
of the condemnation of life, its silhouettes, its sorrows.
Words fail to find support in words,
and silence becomes a treacherous sonata in a dance of laments.
A pain silently cuts, like lightning, I sense it,
the arc in which the vowels placed their accents.
And prayer is drowned, and breath forbids itself that sigh,
that of the quiet goodbye, that of the cry unburied amid the rubble.
It was the reaper, fierce plane in hand, arriving dizzily, without a trace of remorse,
to level the party, to slash smiles, desires.
Stupor, diffuse rage, resentful humiliation of the most devious fate.
There is no needle, no knife, rusty dagger, stingray’s edge that could deepen the wounds where it hurts most.
The 7th passes as always, wrapped in mystery.
The 8th arrives, bloodied, made of feardrunk with terror,
in the cruel month of April, that of the weak lilacs on the wounded earth.
Flowing with rage. Overflowing with stupor.
In familiar sadness, the hours grew slower,
the early morning dew more humid,
the sea’s crooning more solemn and bitter,
to find in their faces the reckless siege,
incomprehensible and sullen,
the indecipherable call of requiem and death.

 


 

Otro abril, demasiado cruel

 

    A todas las víctimas del desplome 
   
del Jet Set, in memoriam


Un olor a benceno recién diseminado,
a derrota del paisaje en plena noche clara,
a condena de la vida, sus siluetas, sus pesares.
Las palabras no consiguen apoyarse en las palabras
y el silencio se convierte en aleve sonata de una danza de lamentos.
Un dolor recorta mudo, como un rayo, lo presiento,
el arco en que asentaban las vocales sus acentos.
Y la oración se ahoga y el aliento se prohíbe a sí mismo aquel suspiro,
el del adiós tranquilo, el del llanto insepulto a pesar de los escombros.
Era la parca, garlopa fiera en mano, llegó vertiginosa, 
sin algún remordimiento, 
para asolar la fiesta, destajar las sonrisas, los anhelos.
Estupor, rabia difusa, ignominia resentida del destino más artero.
No hay aguja, no hay puñal, herrumbrosa daga, filo de mantarraya
que ahonde las heridas allí donde más duele.
Pasa el 7 como siempre arropado de misterio.
Llega el 8 ensangrentado, hecho de susto, ebrio de espanto,
en el cruento mes de abril, el de las lilas débiles sobre la tierra herida.
Frondoso de rabia. Rebosado de estupor.
En tristeza conocida fueron más lentas las horas,
más húmedo el rocío de la madrugada,
más grave y amargo el canturreo del mar,
para hallar en sus semblantes el asedio temerario,
incomprensible y hosco,
el llamado indescifrable del responso y de la muerte.

Copyright © 2025 by José Mármol. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on September 16, 2025, by the Academy of American Poets.

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about this poem


“This poem draws upon T. S. Eliot’s famous line to mourn the victims of one of the deadliest (and preventable) nonnatural disasters in the history of the Dominican Republic. On April 8, 2025, the roof of the iconic Jet Set nightclub in Santo Domingo collapsed, killing two hundred and thirty-six people and injuring more than one hundred and eighty others. Mármol creates a container for grief and indignation, while simultaneously acknowledging the failure of language to express or remedy pain. Instead, the poet allows silence to sound through sensory impressions that invite loss to move through the body, where mourning can happen without the need for words.”
—Eileen O’Connor

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Another April, Too Cruel José Mármol

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