The War of the Idiots

by Beatriz Vignoli (Argentina)

We dynamited the bridge before ever

crossing it, the lovely bridge

that we built.

The bridge over the river of forgetfulness, it was.

Now we will die forgotten.

Let’s die then, and from this.

Translation by Richard Gwyn.

La Guerra de los tontos

Dinamitamos antes de cruzarlo

el puente, el bello puente

que habíamos construido.

El puente sobre el río del olvido era.

Ahora, moriremos olvidados.

Muramos ya, y de esto.

‘La Guerra de los tontos’ was first published in Beatriz Vignoli’s collection Viernes, Bajolaluna, Buenos Aires, 2001.

This poem, along with 155 others by 97 Latin American poets, will be published in October 2016, in the anthology The Other Tiger: Recent Poetry from Latin America, from Seren Books.