GARDENS (Excerpt)

What garden is that which extends on a steppe for kilometers, and which can be seen from satellite? Among the trees the plants expand while the trunks pass and thicken against the wall. Imaginary space is entangled in the vines hanging in front of the stained glass before the light.



Anemic territories around buildings, where everything fits, and the color sequence is in reflection.



The fall of autumn uncovers walls and horizons distinct to those of the previous cycle. There are no weeds only other plants that tangle among those desired.



The southeast balconies bear more than forty varieties of lavender and their scents are impregnated with tomato leaves and fifty-year-old quilas.



Almost limitless the Magellanic clouds are reflected in the austral cypresses transplanted to the center of the buildings. Is it like the dropsy plant next to the keyboard?



Once I was able to possess them, although I did not know of their existence.

*

¿Qué jardín es ése que se extiende en una estepa por kilómetros y que se alcanza a ver desde el satélite? Entre los árboles las plantas se expanden mientras los troncos pasan y se engrosan junto al muro. El espacio imaginario está en enredaderas colgantes enfrente de vidrieras ante la luz.



Territorios anémicos en torno a edificios, donde todo calza y la secuencia de colores es en reflejo.



La caída del otoño descubre paredes y horizontes distintos a los del ciclo anterior. No hay malezas sino otras plantas que se enredan entre las deseadas.



En los balcones del sudeste se dan las más de cuarenta variedades de lavanda y sus olores se impregnan con hojas de tomate y quilas de cincuenta años.



Casi sin límites las nubes magallánicas se reflejan en los cipreses australes trasplantados al centro de las edificaciones. ¿Es como la planta hidrópica junto al teclado?



Alguna vez pude poseerlos, aunque no sabía de su existencia.

—

from Gardens / Jardines–published by Cardboard House

Buy it here

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Carlos Cociña (Concepción, Chile, 1950). His first book is Aguas Servidas (Santiago de Chile, 1980), considered one of the key works of Chilean poetry in the last four decades. In 2014, he received the Municipal Literature Prize in Poetry from the City of Santiago, Chile, for his book El margen de la propia vida, in which “Gardens” was included, and in 2017, he was awarded the Best Works Prize in Poetry by the Circle of Art Critics of Chile for his collection La Casa Devastada. He has also published titles such as Tres canciones (1992), A veces cubierto por las aguas (2003), 71 (setenta y uno) (2004), Plagio del afecto (2009), and Poesía Cero (Anthology, Santiago de Chile, 2017). Since 2003, he has maintained the website www.poesiacero.cl, where he has published some of his work, for which he has been described as one of the pioneers of digital poetry in Chile.

Ian U Lockaby is a poet and translator. His translation of Carlos Cociña’s Gardens was published by Cardboard House in 2021, and his translation of Diana Garza Islas’ Probable Synonyms of the Word Sololoy was published in 2025 by Carrion Bloom Books. He edits Mercury Firs, and lives in New Orleans.