[Julie Steiner]

The grapes grown around Jerez, Andalusia — the birthplace of sherry — tend to be pale green, such as the palomino fino variety.


The Cluster of Grapes
by Salvador Rueda (Spain, 1857–1933)

DRAFT THREE:

Within a fringe of clingy tendrils, see
it dangle from the grapevine, filled with fire.
The dazzling sun behind, still moving higher,
ignites it as it swings translucently.

Clothed in untouched atoms’ purity,
its vigor floods the clement atmosphere.
Its grapes, a string of jadeite beads, appear
entangled in its stalk’s red coral tree.

The stalk, when shears release the cluster’s weight,
creates a kiss-like sound to agitate
the blood, which quickens at the crackling noise.

And as the vine lasciviously trembles,
the crackling noise of flying dew resembles
the gasping belly-laughter that is joy’s.


DRAFT TWO:

Within a fringe of clingy tendrils, see
it dangle from the grapevine, filled with fire.
The dazzling sun behind it, moving higher,
ignites it as it swings, translucently.

Clothed in untouched atoms’ purity,
its vigor floods the clement atmosphere.
Its grapes, a string of Asian beads, appear
entangled in its stalk’s red coral tree.

The stalk, when shears release the cluster’s weight,
gives off a kiss-like sound, to agitate
one’s blood to quicken at the crackling noise.

And as the vine lasciviously trembles,
the crackling noise of flying dew resembles
the gasping belly-laughter that is joy’s.


L6 was: its vigor floods the mellow atmosphere.



DRAFT ONE:

Within a clingy fringe of tendrils, see
it dangle from the grapevine, filled with fire.
The dazzling sun behind it, moving higher,
ignites it, and it sways, translucently.

Clothed in untouched atoms’ purity,
its wholeness floods the warming atmosphere.
Its grapes, a necklace from the East, appear
entangled in its stalk’s red coral tree.

The stalk, when severed from the cluster’s weight,
crackles like a kiss, to agitate
the blood and make it quicken at the noise.

And as the vine lasciviously trembles,
the patter of the flying dew resembles
that crackling ugly-laugh that’s none but joy’s.


El racimo de uvas

En un cairel de pámpanos asido,
vedlo colgando del parral ardiente ;
tras él se eleva el sol resplandeciente,
y a su trasluz colúmpiase encendido.

De virginales átomos vestido
vierte salud en el templado ambiente ;
sus uvas son como collar de oriente
a un rojo tallo de coral prendido.

Cuando se corta del racimo el peso,
el tallo cruje como el son de un beso
que conmueve la sangre acelerada.

Y al temblor de las pámpanas lascivas,
salta el rocío en gotas fugitivas
crujiendo como alegre carcajada.


LITERAL ENGLISH PROSE CRIB

The cluster of grapes

Within a clingy fringe of tendrils,
see it hanging from the flaming vine;
behind it rises the dazzling sun,
and with its translucency it swings, lit up.

Covered in virginal atoms,
it spills health into the temperate air/atmosphere;
its grapes are like a necklace from the orient
fastened to a red stalk of coral.

When the cluster’s weight is cut,
the stalk crackles like the sound of a kiss
that stirs the racing blood.

And at the trembling of the lascivious vines,
the dew leaps in runaway drops
crackling like (a) happy guffaw.