LA SEÑAL
Cuando trajeron su cuerpo de vuelta, le dijeron
a su esposa cómo había muerto:
el general pensó que habían tomado la playa
y mandó los últimos refuerzos. A través de la cortina de humo
los botes iban hacia la orilla. Su marido
fue el primer hombre del primer bote
en moverse en medio del humo y ver la arena
oscurecida por los cuerpos, los tanques ardiendo,
las armas tiradas, la embarcación en la que habían llegado
destruida y regada de sangre. En medio del paso
de balas y cascos desde la orilla, su marido se puso
un par de guantes blancos
y dándole la espalda al enemigo,
les indicó a los barcos que venían detrás suyo
volver. Después de que todos
los de su barco estuvieran muertos
continuó haciendo la señal, y después, a él también
lo mataron, pero los otros barcos lo habían visto
y volvieron. Le dieron a su esposa la medalla
y lo enterró, y a la noche flotó a través
de una cortina de humo, y lo vio a la distancia
parado en un barco, mirándola,
los guantes llameando en sus manos mientras
le indicaba que regresara.
Versión de Tom Maver
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THE SIGNAL
When they brought his body back, they told
his wife how he’d died:
the general thought they had taken the beach,
and sent in his last reserves. In the smokescreen,
the boats moved toward shore. Her husband
was the first man in the first boat
to move through the smoke and see the sand
dark with bodies, the tanks burning,
the guns thrown down, the landing craft
wrecked and floored with blood. In the path of the
bullets and shells from the shore, her husband had
put on a pair of white gloves
and turned his back on the enemy,
motioning to the boats behind him
to turn back. After everyone else
on his boat was dead
he continued to signal, then he, too,
was killed, but the other boats had seen him
and turned back. They gave his wife the medal,
and she buried him, and at night floated through
a wall of smoke, and saw him at a distance
standing in a boat, facing her,
the gloves blazing on his hands as he motioned her back.
his wife how he’d died:
the general thought they had taken the beach,
and sent in his last reserves. In the smokescreen,
the boats moved toward shore. Her husband
was the first man in the first boat
to move through the smoke and see the sand
dark with bodies, the tanks burning,
the guns thrown down, the landing craft
wrecked and floored with blood. In the path of the
bullets and shells from the shore, her husband had
put on a pair of white gloves
and turned his back on the enemy,
motioning to the boats behind him
to turn back. After everyone else
on his boat was dead
he continued to signal, then he, too,
was killed, but the other boats had seen him
and turned back. They gave his wife the medal,
and she buried him, and at night floated through
a wall of smoke, and saw him at a distance
standing in a boat, facing her,
the gloves blazing on his hands as he motioned her back.
de One secret thing, Alfred A. Knof, New York, 2008
