Nicanor Perra

[rejectomorph]

Nicanor Segundo Parra Sandoval (5 September 1914 – 23 January 2018) was a Chilean poet, mathematician, and physicist. Rejecting the conventional techniques and language of poetry, he wrote in a colloquial tone and described himself as an anti-poet. Though less widely known outside the Spanish speaking world than many other modern Latin American poets, his influence on poets writing in English has been considerable.


The Last Toast


Whether we like it or not,
We have only three choices:
Yesterday, today and tomorrow.

And not even three
Because as the philosopher says
Yesterday is yesterday
It belongs to us only in memory:
From the rose already plucked
No more petals can be drawn.

The cards to play
Are only two:
The present and the future.

And there aren't even two
Because it's a known fact
The present doesn't exist
Except as it edges past
And is consumed...,
like youth.

In the end
We are only left with tomorrow.
I raise my glass
To the day that never arrives.

But that is all
we have at our disposal.


( In the original Spanish )