Gemma Gorga: Pomegranate

Translated from the Catalan by Sharon Dolin
I pry out the seeds with my fingers and all

my memories spill onto the frosty marble

counter. Little, lit up like ruby-red carnival lights,

rough as the cat tongue of Time

inviting us to sit at the table to gobble us up

in a mouthful. The pomegranate returns

late autumn, ready to ruin us, on whichever night

we are in the kitchen, distracted by dinner: very lightly

it stains our fingers that pensive, murky color,

the color hours take on that won’t

clot—the open color of memory.

L’esgrano amb els dits i salten tot de records 

sobre la llum gebrada del marbre. Petits, 

encesos com bombetes vermelles de fira, 

asprosos com la llengua felina del temps

que ens convida a seure a taula per engolir-nos

d’una bocada. La magrana torna cada f

inal de tardor, disposada a devastar-nos 

una nit qualsevol, mentre som a la cuina

distrets amb el sopar: molt lleument va tacant-nos 

els dits amb aquell color pensatiu i tèrbol,

el color que tenen les hores que no acaben 

de coagular, el color obert de la memòria.

Gemma Gorga was born in Barcelona in 1968. She has published six collections of poetry in Catalan. Her most recent collection Mur (Barcelona: Meteora, 2015) won the Premi de la Critica de Poesia Catalana. Her new book of poems, Viatge al centre, is forthcoming in 2020. She is Professor of Medieval and Renaissance Spanish Literature at the University of Barcelona.