This morning, after watching and reading about the protests over 43 missing students in México, intense resonance from Roberto Bolaño:
Hills shaded beyond your dreams.
Castles dreamt by the vagabond.
Dying at the end of any old day.
Impossible to escape violence.
Impossible to think of anything else.
Feeble men praise poetry and arms.
Castles and birds of another imagination.
What has yet to take shape will protect me.
And here’s the original:
Colinas sombreadas más allá de tus sueños.
Los castillos que sueña el vagabundo.
Morir al final de un día cualquiera.
Imposible escapar de la violencia.
Imposible pensar en otra cosa.
Flacos señores alaban poesía y armas.
Castillos y pájaros de otra imaginación.
Lo que aún no tiene forma me protegerá.
Let’s hope that protection—and the destruction of the narco gobierno that protection will require—is in fact in the offing for the agonized people of México.