Alfonsina Storni
trans. by Rocío De Deco
Loneliness
I could fling my heart away
from here, over some roof:
my heart would roll around
unseen.
I could holler
my pain
until my body split in two:
it would be dissolved
by the river waters.
I could dance
on the rooftop
the black dance of death:
the wind would just blow
my dance away.
I could
release the flame within my chest
and send it rolling
like the will-o’-the-wisp:
the electric light bulbs
would snuff it out . . .
Alfonsina Storni (1892-1938) was a Swiss-Argentine poet, essayist, playwright, and journalist. She worked as an actress and primary-school teacher before turning to a full-time writing career to support herself and her son, Alejandro, as a single mother. Her early work has been classified as late-Romantic, confessional, and lyrical, while her later production can be described as avant-garde, modernist, and surrealistic. Women’s emancipation, poverty, illness, and motherhood are some of her key themes.
Rocío De Deco holds a BA in Literary and Technical Translation (English-Spanish) from IESLV Juan Ramón Fernández (Buenos Aires). Previously, she has published nonfiction translations ranging from cookbooks and self-help guides to biographies and sociological essays. A feminist and a bookworm, Rocío aims to use her linguistic and cultural expertise to shed light on Latin American women writers whose exciting, valuable, and thought-provoking work has not yet reached international readers, scholars, and publishers.