Yo en el fondo del mar
By Alfonsina Storni (from Mundo de siete pozos, 1934)
Translation by Richard E. McDorman
© 2011
Me at the Bottom of the Sea
(from World of Seven Wells, 1934)
At the bottom of the sea
is a house
made of glass,
at the edge
of a coral-lined
street.
A big golden fish
comes to greet me
at five;
a red bouquet
of coral
it brings.
I sleep on a bed
a bit bluer
than the sea.
Through the glass
now an octopus
winks.
In the green forest
around me
sway mermaids who sing
—ding, dong … dong, ding—
in their nacre and aquamarine.
And above my head
glow in the twilight
the prickling pins of the sea
