‘Leslie’ is a poem published in the volume Katherine Mansfield and Bliss and Other Stories, edited by Enda Duffy, Gerry Kimber and Todd Martin (Edinburgh University Press, 2020, p. 156; Katherine Mansfield Studies series. ISBN: 978-1-4744-7730-7).
The inspiration for this poem comes from Katherine Mansfield’s letters and journal. Her brother Leslie died by accident during a grenade training drill in Belgium (October 1915). The poem is the author’s collaborative translation with Lizzie Davis and Carmel Bird of the poem with the same title published originally in Spanish by Gerardo Rodríguez-Salas in his work Anacronía (Valparaíso ediciones, 2020).
Leslie
You left at the wrong time.
The news burst into a thousand pieces
still floating in the air,
gunpowder on my lips.
Incredulous, I touch your letters
filled with memories,
scent of home, ink
on your fingers.
Your death was not a drill.
The pomegranate spilt seeds on you,
a tin soldier without a fight,
and you lying in that forest,
asleep, while I feel
wind, sea, dawn, life:
I am as dead as you are.
It’s useless to cry out. Don’t scream!
Hanging in cages
on the dismal wall
we can only
sing, sing.
gerardorodriguezsalas.com 