Rafael Alberti (1902 – 1999): 'Buster Keaton Searches the Woods for his Sweetheart a Genu-ine Cow'

[Translation from Spanish by Jerome Rothenberg, first published here & dedicated to Heriberto Yépez, who originally showed me the experimental, almost Dadaist range of Alberti’s early poetry.]

 

1, 2, 3 & 4.

These four footprints don’t match my shoes.

If these four footprints don’t match my shoes,

whose four footprints can these footprints be?

Can they be from a shark?

from an elephant babe? from a duck?

from a flea? from a quail?

 

(Pee, pee, pee.)

 

Georginaaaaaaaa!

Where have you gone?

I don’t hear you, Georgina!

What will your papa’s moustachios think of me?

 

(Paapááááá.)

 

Georginaaaaaaaa!

Art thou or aren’t thou?

 

Firtree, where are you?

Alder, where are you?

Pinetree, where are you?

 

(Did Georgina pass by here?)

 

(Pee, pee, pee, pee.)

 

She passed by at 1:00 eating grasses.

Coocoo.

The crow caught her eye with a mignonette blossom.

Cawcaw.

The screech owl with a dead rat.

 

Pardon me, boys, but I can’t keep from bawling.

(Wah, wah, wah.)

 

Georgina!

Now you’re missing only one horn

for a doctor’s degree in a usefully surefire bike race

with a mailman’s cap as a prize.

 

(Scree, scree, scree, scree.)

 

Even the crickets take pity on me

& when I’m in pain the ticks will come with me.

Have a heart for me in this tux

out here looking for you bawling in between rain squawls

with a derby too & so tender

to display you from bush unto bush.

 

 Georginaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!

 

(Maaaaaaa.)

 

Are you a sweet little girl or are you a genu-ine cow?

My heart always told me that you were a genu-ine cow.

Your papa that you were a sweet little girl.

My heart that you were a genu-ine cow.

A sweet little girl.

A genu-ine cow.

A girl.
A cow.
A girl or a cow?
Or a girl and a cow?
I never knew nuttin.
Bye bye, Georgina.
(Biff bam!)