Voces/Voices: the aphorisms of Antonio Porchia

Wally Swist

VOCES/VOICES

Quien ha visto vaciarse todo, casi sabe de qué se llena todo.
Whomever has seen everything empty, almost knows what everything is filled with.

Ante de recorrer mi camino yo era mi camino.
Before walking my path I was my path.

Las pequeñeces son lo eterno, y lo demás, todo lo demás, lo breve, lo muy breve.
The little things are the eternal, and the rest, everything else, the brief, the very brief.

Trátame como debes tratarme, no como merezco ser tratado.
Treat me how you should treat me, not how I deserve to be treated.

Se vive con la esperanza de llegar a ser un recuerdo.
You live in the hope of becoming a memory.

Casi no he tocado el barro y soy de barro.
I have hardly touched the clay and I am made of clay.

Mucho de lo que he dejado de hacer en mí, sigue haciéndose en mí, solo.
Much of what I have stopped doing in myself, continues to be done in me, alone.

Cuando busco mi existencia no la busco en mí.
When I seek existence I do not seek it in myself.

Durmiendo sueño lo que despierto sueño. Y mi soñar es continuo.
Sleeping I dream what I dream when I’m awake. And my dream is continual.

El misterio apacigua mis ojos, no los ciega.
Mystery soothes my eyes, it does not blind them.

Una cosa, hasta no ser toda, es ruido, y toda, es silencio.
One thing, until it is everything, is noise, and once everything, is silence.

El lodo, apartándolo del lodo, no es más lodo.
The mud, separated from mud, is no longer mud.

Cuando me encuentro con alguna idea que no es de este mundo, siento como si se ensanchara este mundo.
When I encounter some idea that is not of this world, I feel as if this world widens.

Entra una nueva pena y las viejas penas de la casa la reciben calladas, no muertas.
A new sorrow enters and the old sorrows of the house receive it silently, not with death.

Nada, se dice de esto, de aquello, hasta se dice de todo. Solo no se dice de nada.
Nothing is said about this, about that, it is even said about everything. It’s just not said about everything.

Hay dolores que han perdido la memoria y no recuerdan por qué son dolores.
There are sorrows that have lost their memory and do not remember they are sorrows.

Dirán que andas por un camino equivocado, si andas por tu camino.
They will say you are on the wrong path, if you are on your path.

He llegado a un paso de todo. Y aquí me quedo, lejos de todo, un paso.
I have arrived one step from everything. And here I stay, one step, far away from everything.

Dios le ha dado mucho al hombre; pero el hombre quisiera algo del hombre.
God has given quite a lot to man; but man desires something from man.

El dolor está arriba, no abajo. Y todos creen que el dolor está abajo. Y todos quieren subir.
The sorrow is above, not below. And everyone believes the sorrow is below. And everyone wants to go up.

La pena humana, durmiendo, no tiene forma. Si la despiertan, toma la forma de quien la despierta.
Human grief, sleeping, has no form. If she is awakened, she takes the form of whoever awakens her.

Mis culpas no irán a otras manos por mi culpa. No quiero otra culpa en mis manos.
My faults will not pass to other hands because of me. I don’t want another fault on my hands.

Si, me apartaré. Prefiero lamentarme de tu ausencia que de tí.
Yes, I will move away. I would rather regret your absence than you.

Sé que anduve de lo antes breve a lo después eterno de todas los cosas, pero no sé cómo.
I know that I went from the brief before to the eternal after of all things, but how I don’t know.

Cuando busco mi existencia, no la busco en mí.
When I seek my existence, I do not seek it in myself.

Si no nos dieran nada quienes no nos deben nada, pobres de nosotros.
If those who owe us nothing gave us nothing, how poor would we be.

Cuando me parece que escuchas mis palabras, me parecen tuyas mis palabras y escucho mis palabras.
When it seems to me that you listen to my words, my words seem to be your words, with me listening.

En el último instante, toda mi vida durara un instante.
In the final moment, my entire life will last for an instant.

Me es más fácil ver todas las cosas como una cosa sola, que ver una cosa como una cosa sola.
It is easier for me to see all things as one thing, than to see one thing as one thing.

Eres un fantoche, pero en las manos de lo infinito, que tal vez son tus manos.
You are a puppet, but in the hands of the infinite, which may be your own hands.

Mis cosas totalmente perdidas son aquellas que, al perderlas yo, no las encuentran otros.
My things that are totally lost are ones that, when I lose them, are not found by anyone else.

Cuando no creo en nada, no quisiera encontrarme contigo, cuando no crees en nada.
When I don’t believe in anything, I wouldn’t want to meet you, when you believe in anything.

A veces creo que el mal es todo y que el bien es solo un bello deseo del mal.
Sometimes I believe that everything is evil, and that good is just a beautiful desire for evil.

Los niños que nadie lleva de la mano son los niños que saben que son niños.
Those children whom no one leads by the hand are the children who know they are children.

Si pudieras salir de tus penas y salieras de tus penas, ¿sabrías adónde ir fuera de tus penas?
If you could escape from your sorrows, and you did emerge from your sorrows, would you know where to go to be away from your sorrows?

Lo que dicen las palabras no dura. Duran las palabras. Porque las palabras son siempre las mismas y lo que dicen no es nunca los mismo.
What the words say doesn’t last. Words last. Because words always remain the same and what they say is never the same.

Hieres y volverás a herir. Porque hieres y te apartas. No acompañas a la herida.
You hurt and you will hurt again. Because you hurt and you turn away. You do not accompany the wound.


Antonio Porchia (November 13, 1885 – November 9, 1968) was born in Conflenti, Italy, but after the death of his father in 1900 moved to Argentina. Although a potter by trade, Porchia is known as an Argentinian poet. He is known for his book Voces ("Voices"), a book of aphorisms. The book was first published in Buenos Aires in 1943 upon which a review copy was sent to French critic Roger Caillois, who was inspired to publish a translation of the work with an accompanying introduction in 1949. Voces/Voices was published in subsequent editions, the most recent and most comprehensive during Porchia’s lifetime in 1966, in which some six hundred aphorisms were collected – a work of a lifetime.Porchia gained respect and admiration from a number of prominent literary figures, including André Breton, Jorge Luis Borges, Roberto Juarroz and Henry Miller. Although some critics have compared Porchia’s work with that of Japanese haiku, Porchia’s concretizations exhibit no distinction to the genre due to their lack of internal juxtaposition, although the aphorisms do distinguish themselves in their deep philosophical and ontological evocations that are similarly found in any number of Zen schools of thought.

Wally Swist

Wally Swist’s books include Huang Po and the Dimensions of Love (Southern Illinois University Press, 2012), selected by Yusef Komunyakaa for the 2011 Crab Orchard Open Poetry Competition, and A Bird Who Seems to Know Me: Poems Regarding Birds and Nature, winner of the 2018 Ex Ophidia Poetry Prize. Recent essays, poems, and translations have appeared in Asymptote (Taiwan), Chicago Quarterly Review, Commonweal, The Comstock Review, La Piccioletta Barca (U.K.), Pensive: A Journal of Global Spirituality & the Arts, Tipton Poetry Review, Today’s American Catholic, Poetry London, and Your Impossible Voice. Shanti Arts published his translation of L’Allegria, Giuseppe Ungaretti’s first iconic book, in August 2023. He will be featured writer in the Spring 2025 issue of Ezra: An Online Journal of Translation that will highlight several of his translations from the Spanish of Roberto Juarroz. Finishing Line Press will be publishing his book, If You’re the Dreamer, I’m the Dream: Selected Translations from The Book of Hours, in 2025.

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