Mado Reznik: The Law

In the beginning, every human

has their Moira – their ration of life.

The fate of each individual.

It is the law that not even the gods can violate.

A piece of dream − a piece of life.

The dead father has his eyes open.

Hypnos, who possesses a certain taste of death,

embraces his victim and deprives it

of it attention at the same time as its vision.

There is a cunning death. Is it still death?

The vocabulary describing death is inscribed

in the world of cunning.

Its ties with sleep still make it more slippery,

sleep can change at any time

into the instrument of a subterfuge.

Sisyphus takes death by surprise,

he fetters it – he paralyzes it.

All seems immobile.

No one dies

for a certain time.

But Zeus

perhaps tired − perhaps upset

releases death

and Sisyphus dies.

And in a still later gambit,

Sisyphus convinces his wife

to not render him funeral honors.

And when he stands at Hades’ side,

it is Sisyphus himself

who, believing he is more cunning,

complains of the injustice he has suffered,

which is no more than he

has contrived.

And Hades allows him to cross the threshold

in reverse,

to return to earth – to punish the unfaithful one.

And Sisyphus dies of old age.

But the infernal gods do not forget.

     Translated from the Spanish by the author

Poet, novelist and artist, Mado Reznik lives between Argentina and Mexico.  “The Law” is a fragment from The Warranty of Dreams, published in Buenos Aires in 2017. The Confessions of Strumpets (poetry) and the anthology Day and Fog: Terezin—Poets at a Crossroad detail social memories and political issues. Her visual poetry, in the form of collage, takes politics to the point of abstraction. As an artistic social promoter, she has been working with children and women from underprivileged social areas for the last ten years. 

www.madoreznik.com