Gustavo Gac-Artigas, Chile

Chilean writer, poet, novelist, and playwright living in the US since 1992. He is a corresponding member of the Academia Norteamericana de la Lengua Española (ANLE), and a regular contributor of opinion articles for Le Monde Diplomatique, Chilean edition, Impacto La­tino, NY, El Desconcierto, Chile, TodoLiteratura, Spain, and Letralia. His poetry has been published in numer­ous magazines and anthologies in the United States, France and Latin America and partially translated into English, French and Romanian.

As a poet, he has participated in International Festivals and poetry readings in Paris, the United States, Colom­bia, Guatemala, Mexico, India, and Costa Rica, among others.

Awards:

Honored Poet of the 17th Hispanic/Latino Book Fair Queens, 2023

Finalist International Latino Book Award 2018: category “best fiction book in translation Spanish to English” for Y todos éramos actores, un siglo de luz y sombra (2016) /And All of Us Were Actors, A Century of Light and Shadow translated by Andrea G. Labinger.

Poetry Park Award, Rotterdam, 1989 for “Dr. Zamenhofstraat”

Publications

Poetry

Si lo hubiera sabido… Valparaíso Ediciones. España, Colombia, 2024.

Y aún queda espacio en mi mochila. Puerto Rico. Editorial LaCriba, 2024.

POŞTA POEZIEI/El correo de la poesía. Ruma­nia. Editorial Kult, 2023, translated by Car­men Bulzan.

Un poète dans la ville / Un poeta en la ciudad. Paris, Éditions l’Harmattan, 2023, translated by Priscilla Gac-Artigas.

Invocación de confines/Invocarea limitei. Chile, Inde­pendent­ly Poetry, 2024, translated by Carmen Bulzan.

Un poète dans la ville /un poeta en la ciudad. París, L’Harmattan, 2024, translated by Priscilla Gac-Artigas.

Desde el fondo del tintero: Dalibá, la brujita del Caribe (París 1982), ExIliadas (Rotterdam 1988). HLCCNY, 2023.

hombre de américa/man of the americas. Nueva York Poetry Press, NY, 2022, translated by Priscilla Gac-Artigas y Andrea G. Labinger.

deseos / longings / j’aimerais tant. Ediciones Nue­vo Espacio, 2020, translated by Andrea G. Labinger, English, and Priscilla Gac-Artigas, French.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gustavo_Gac-Artigas

I ASK FOR FORGIVENESS

.

without your permission

i stole part of your lives

.

without your permission

i allowed myself to relive an instant of your loves

.

without your permission

i took over your feelings

.

without your permission

i tried to decipher your secrets

.

without your permission

i witnessed the birth and death of a love

.

without your permission

i allowed myself to capture your tears

.

without your permission

i brought you into my home and my dreams

.

without your permission

i read your letters before they were written

.

without your permission

i spied on you to invade your thoughts

.

i ask for forgiveness

without your permission

today i am addressing you

Translated by Priscilla Gac-Artigas

Fulbright Scholar, Full member of the Academia Norteamericana de la Lengua Española (ANLE), corresponding member of the Real Academia (RAE), professor of Latin American literature at Monmouth University, NJ, USA. Translator of poetry into French and English.

_______

CHRONOS

                exhausted by the passage of time

                i wondered which of the letters

                would be the first to disappear

.

                i knew that the moment would come

.

                and with it these things would vanish: 

                a date

                a face

                a name

                a memory

.

                on that day i would begin to die

.

                slowly i would advance toward my birth

                toward the image of a suitcase traveling through the air

                toward my cradle

                the first of my deaths

.

                perhaps in an old black and white photo

                the face of a first love will remain

                but the face beside it will slowly disappear

                and i will ask, who is that strange woman

                and why does she appear in my dreams

.

                early every morning

                in a sort of conjuration

                i look over the letters that defy me

                from my keyboard

                while i wonder

                which will be the first to disappear

                and with it

                from one oblivion to another

.

                my first memories

.

                the source of my writing

_____

Translated by Andrea G. Labinger

Professor emerita of Spanish at the University of La Verne, holds a Ph.D. from Harvard University and specializes in translating Latin American Literature. Three of her novel translations were finalists in the PEN Literary Competition.