Laura Nagle

A Translation of "A House in the Country" from the Spanish of Adela Zamudio 

The gale descends relentlessly

above my lonely bedchamber.

Alone and silent in my chair,

I listen to the creaking roof,

hear the protracted battle

of wind and water through the night.

It comes to an end, as it must;
the echoes of the far-off storm,

mournful and somber, fall silent.
All that remains of the torrent

is a stream that whines as it winds

amidst the rocks neath my window. 
 

On the other side of the glass,

trapped in a mossy piece of rock

that can serve as a rustic seat,

a feeble creeping vine trembles,

sodden to the point of weeping

over the dark gully below.

The violent sounds of that gully,

its profound and dismal murmurs,

are now beginning to recede.
I listen to the placid rain, 

the steadiness of its rhythm,

its monotonous drip, drip, drip. 

And I alone remain standing, 
no one but me in all the house, 
surrounded, shrouded in darkness.

Beside me, every now and then,

the meager candlelight flickers
and I quake and tremble anew.
 
My senses are vaguely clouded,

my judgment obscured by unease,

my mind filled with hollow terrors.
In the melancholy stillness 
I believe I can hear them still:
horrific cries in the distance.
 
What words are those on the wind’s lips,
what faded echoes of the past? 
Death! the wind whispers, mocking me,

as it swoops down over the house.
Alas, to die ne’er having loved!
Alas, to die ne’er having lived! 

Dismal specter of nothingness, 
you sorrowful, silent shadow 
of dreams I’ve long since disavowed,

you who arise and approach me

with cheerful mien and measured pace:
Come not here, for I am afraid!
 
Tomorrow, when the lush meadow

is bathed in the pure light of dawn,
I will remain in dim shadow,
filled with horror as now I am,

my soul burdened by the darkness,
the gloom, of my morningless night.

Adela Zamudio (1854–1928) was a writer, activist, and educator from Cochabamba, Bolivia. Often using the pen name Soledad, she published numerous essays, poems, and short stories, as well as one novel, Íntimas. She was honored in 1926 by presidential decree as “the greatest exemplar of culture in Bolivia” and is perhaps best remembered today as a pioneer in her country’s feminist movement.

Laura Nagle is a translator and writer based in Indianapolis. Her translations of prose and poetry from French and Spanish have appeared in journals including AGNI, The Southern Review, Gulf Coast, and Presence, and her short fiction has recently appeared or is forthcoming in The Common, North American Review, and Stanchion. Her translation of Prosper Mérimée’s 1827 hoax, La Guzla, was published in 2023 by Frayed Edge Press.