The fine anti-Franco poet’s obituary appeared in The Miami Herald. Here’s my (inadequate) translation of his poem “Hope…”:
Hope,
black twilight spider.
You halt
not far from my forsaken
body, you scuttle
around me,
rapidly weaving
tenuous invisible threads,
you draw near, relentless,
and almost caress me with your shadow
heavy
and light at once.
Clenched
under rocks and hours,
patient, you awaited the coming
of this evening
where nothing now
is possible…
My heart:
your nest.
Bite into it, hope.
Steven Ford Brown has translated a selection of González’s poems into English as Astonishing World.