Horse in Motion
At a Glance
Section titled âAt a Glanceâ| Metadata | Details |
|---|---|
| Publication Date | 2021-01-01 |
| Journal | ÂThe ÂMassachusetts review |
| Authors | Isabel Cristina Posada Zapata, Robin Myers |
Abstract
Section titled âAbstractâHorse in Motion Isabel Zapata (bio) translated by Robin Myers Keywords Isabel, Zapata, Robin, Myers, translation poetry, Mexican poet, Spanish translation, horse, gallop, film, flight, racetrack Where does a horseâs gallop start:inside the box of its motionless form,on the trapeze of its kickoff,or in the diamond of its hooves mid-air? Leland Stanford would say the third:a horse flies when it haltssuspended there above the track. James Keene insisted on the opposite:a hoof affixed,an anchor on the ground. To prove his point, Stanford asked Eadweard Muybridgeto photograph the motion of an equinetrotting at 22 miles per hour along the Sacramento racecourse. In the space between the horse and the track,the photographer saw the first tooth peekingthrough the gums of his son Helios, the smileof the girl in the cigarette ad. He saw his mother fill a cup of teawith a thread of still, crystalline water,a portal creaking open toward the past.He saw the body of his wife above his own,forming a triangle of guts and bloodthat hasnât learned to be anywhere at all. [End Page 348] The question isnât where a horseâs gallop starts,but where its flight begins,where it might keep its invisible wings,where its horizon is, the one where they surpass uslike gods that speak without a word,which isnât the same as saying that they speak in silence. Thereâs more than one way to bet at the races. Muybridge knew it by the angle of a ray of lightcutting through the dust kicked up by horses without ever touching it. [End Page 349] Isabel Zapata isabel zapata is a writer and editor from Mexico City. She is the author of the poetry collections Ventanas adentro (Ediciones Urdimbre, 2002), Las noches son asĂ (Broken English, 2018), and Una ballena es un paĂs (AlmadĂa, 2019), as well as the bilingual essay collection Alberca vacĂa/Empty Pool (ArgonĂĄutica, 2019, trans. Robin Myers). Recent work has appeared in English translation in World Literature Today, Waxwing, The Common, The Offing, AzonaL, Rio Grande Review, Tupelo Quarterly, and Words Without Borders. Robin Myers robin myers is a Mexico City-based poet and translator. Recent translations include books by Cristina Rivera Garza, MĂłnica RamĂłn RĂos, and Gloria Susana Esquivel; her translations of works by Leonardo Teja, Keila Vall de la Ville, Adalber Salas HernĂĄndez, and Daniel Lipara will be published in 2021. She writes a monthly column on translation for Palette Poetry. Copyright © 2021 The Massachusetts Review, Inc.