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🇲🇽 Mexico /Culture & Society

The Clown: An Unpublished Poem by Jaime Sabines

From El Universal · () Spanish

Translated from Spanish and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

In-depth Sources not specified Context piece
  • A clown sits down to write but finds no inspiration, only a blank page and an empty inner world.
  • After four hours, he writes that he does not want to amuse, sadden or entertain anyone.

The clown sends his wife out of the room, takes up a pen and paper, lights a cigarette and settles down to wait. But no afternoon air enters through the window, and no muses descend from the ceiling to crown him.

There is only half-light, a dirty light, a dirty radio voice, and nothing inside the clown. He can cast hooks toward ghosts, but the paper remains white. He can scratch at his empty heart and his costume, or say that his soul is nailed to a piece of earth or to failure.

The paper stays white. “I don’t want to cheer anyone up or make anyone sad, or be a spectacle.” After four hours, that is what the clown writes.

I don’t want to cheer anyone up or make anyone sad, or be a spectacle.

· The clownThe clown’s only written words after four hours of waiting for inspiration.
About this summary

Originally published by El Universal in Spanish. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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