VALENTINE PENROSE
Trans. Mia X. Pérez


Goa II



August 31 2026  Translation (Poetry II)



Upon the river of milk with sweet spanning skies
fractures and folds of linen arise
hands joined boiling eyes on the banks
weeping saints run through the breeze.

But the facades have gone to the Canaries
from the scorpion and serpent a fine odor emanates
when the banana molders against the wall to the north
the saint’s cloth decays in Goa.

The ceramics have savored
your tortured ivory
in the spiced cloisters
your heroic beauty
only bones in the crumbled plaster.

I will speak of the wind o roof of leaves atop the earth
I will speak of nights I will speak of cedars
of prenatal vestiges
of these children rushed to the mountainous stratum
dwarves devilish and present of which we are the children
touched throughout the heart.

Defeated we withdraw passing our obstacles once more
here we have returned to the delectable circus
where the oil of ancestors and the dark and comely
silently anoint the basalt face.

I steal you anew sleeping wells of mothers
circus where the befores flow by and name one another
where the giantess with dark breasts in the nocturnal milks
fills blond oblivions so that they might remember.

Remembered returned here I am in my arms
summoning with the ancient maneuvers gentle like the panther
spinning at the bottom of the circus where the potential sky
has not yet laid its oppressive spell.

Fresh vapors of sulfur
fresh vapors of stars
blondes
all that remains
                     that will remain
                                 nurture it well o great mother nurture it well!

Sur le fleuve de lait aux cieux doux traversés
s’élèvent des plis et des cassures de linges
des mains jointes des yeux bouillonnent sur les berges
les saintes en pleurs courent dans le vent léger.

Mais les façades sont allées aux Canaries
du scorpion du serpent monte la fine odeur
quand moisit la banane au pied du mur au nord
le linge de la sainte à Goa se pourrit.

Les céramiques ont goûté
ton ivoire tourmenté
dans les cloîtres épicés
ton héroïque beauté
seule d’os dans les plâtres émiettés.

Je parlerai du vent ô toit des feuilles sur le monde
je parlerai des nuits je parlerai des cèdres
des vestiges avant de naître
de ces enfants pressés aux strates des montagnes
nains tortueux et présents dont nous sommes les fils
atteints partout au cœur.

Vaincus à reculons repassant nos obstacles
nous voici revenus au cirque savoureux
où l’huile de l’ancêtre et du beau ténébreux
oint silencieusement la face des basaltes.

Je te vole à nouveau puits endormi des mères
cirque où les antérieurs s’écoulent et se nomment
où la géante aux seins noirs dans des laits nocturnes
gave de blonds néants afin qu’ils se souviennent.

Souvenu revenu me voici dans mes bras
puisant aux vieux filons doux comme les panthères
tournant au fond du cirque où le possible ciel
n’a pas encore plaqué son pesant sortilège.

Les nouvelles vapeurs des soufres
les nouvelles vapeurs d’étoiles
les blondes
tout ce qui se tient
                       ce qui se tiendra
                                             berce-le bien ô grande berce-le bien !




✳


Valentine Penrose (1898–1978) was born in Mont-de-Marsan, France to a bourgeois military family. Disinterested in conforming to any social convention, Penrose immersed herself in bohemian circles from a young age. Commonly celebrated as the first woman to publish Surrealist poetry, Penrose’s poems are distinguished by their intertextuality and anachronism, shaped by her lifelong studies in eastern philosophies, medieval history, and magical practice. Restless in the tame suburbs of France and England, she frequently traveled abroad, with long stays in India. She joined the international brigades in the Spanish Civil War and was stationed with French forces in Algiers during WWII. Perhaps best known for the unapologetically queer 1951 gothic novel The Bloody Countess, Penrose authored several works of poetry, prose, and collage before passing away on Farley Farm, the artist commune run by ex-husband Roland Penrose and his second wife Lee Miller.

Mia X. Pérez
is a writer, editor, and translator from Seattle, Washington. Their work has been published or is forthcoming in The Brooklyn Review, AGON, Vestiges (Black Sun Lit), California Quarterly, and mercury firs, among others. Currently a PhD candidate of Comparative Literature at The Graduate Center, CUNY, their research focuses on Romanticism, ecological thought, nature philosophy, and representations of decay. Their translation of the complete poems of Surrealist writer Valentine Penrose, Of Thorn and Wing, is forthcoming this November from World Poetry Books.




ISSUE N˚2


01

Falling

Bryony Dawson

 FICTION

02

Goa I
Goa II

Valentine Penrose,
trans. Mia X. Pérez

POETRY (TRANSLATION)

03

The Semiosis of Real Presence

Elizabeth Atherton

FICTION

04

A Day Off

Aloma Rodriguez

FICTION (TRANSLATION)

05

Drowned Song
At Field-in-the-Eye

Travis Smith

 POETRY


06

from Notes on Self Reliance: A Poem for Two Voices

Serena Solin

 POETRY





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