• El Ángel De Los Números / The Angel of Numbers

    Rafael Alberti translated by John Murillo

    Fall 2024

    El Ángel De Los Números

    Vírgenes con esquadras
    y compases, velando
    las celestes pizarras.

    Y el ángel de los números,
    pensativo, volando
    del 1 al 2, del 2
    al 3, del 3 al 4.

    Tizas frías y esponjas
    rayaban y borraban
    la luz de los espacios.

    Ni sol, luna, ni estrellas,
    ni el repentino verde
    del rayo y el relámpago,
    ni el aire. Sólo nieblas.

    Vírgenes sin esquadras,
    sin compases, llorando.

    Y en las muertas pizarras,
    el ángel de los números,
    sin vida, amortajado
    sobre el 1 y el 2,
    sobre el 3, sobre el 4…


    The Angel of Numbers

    Virgins with squares
    and compasses, watching
    the celestial blackboards.

    And the angel of numbers,
    pensive, flying
    from 1 to 2, from 2
    to 3, from 3 to 4.

    Cold chalk and sponges
    scratch out and erase
    the light from the lecture halls.

    Not the sun or the moon, not the stars,
    not the sudden green
    of the lightning’s bolt and flash,
    not the air. Only mist.

    Virgins without squares,
    without compasses, crying.

    And on the dead blackboards,
    the angel of numbers,
    lifeless, shrouded
    above the 1 and the 2,
    above the 3, above the 4…

    Rafael Alberti (1902-1999) was one of the most significant members of the group of writers known as the Generación del 27. His first book, Marinero en tierra, earned the author a Premio Nacional de Literatura in 1924. Before the end of the Spanish Civil War, he was forced into exile, though he returned to Spain following the country’s transition to democracy. A multi-talented artist, he also produced works for theatre, memoirs, and paintings. The many awards he received include the Premio Cervantes (1983).


    John Murillo is the author of the poetry collections Up Jump the Boogie (Cypher 2010, Four Way Books 2020), and Kontemporary Amerikan Poetry (Four Way 2020), winner of the Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award. Murillo’s poems have appeared in American Poetry Review, Poetry, and Best American Poetry. Currently, he is an associate professor of Englis and director of the creative writing program at Wesleyan University.

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