The Puerto Rican Literature Project

She, if you could see her,

after dedicating herself

to breaking locks and flags,

sits down in the front row

to digest her sweet traps,

her crazy games;

if you could see her, she’s so calm.

Translator’s note: The “she” at the start of the poem reads far more awkwardly than in the original, since Spanish lends itself much better to clause-heavy sentences and complicated syntax. I could have just started with the “if” and placed the “she” before “sits down” in line four and it would have read more smoothly. Still, I opted not to do so, since I thought it was important to honor how the original poems centers the “she” character rather than the impersonal you in “if you could see her."