Nikolai Bunik, the Russian poet and aphorist whom Celso Castro invented in one of his novels, reappears now in a ninety-eight-piece book of lucid and melancholy pieces that blend aphorism with a restrained and necessary lyricism.
In Zenda we reproduce five poems from Bunik Notebook (Comba), by Celso Castro.
***
Our Lady of the Pearl
because you insulted my virgin
and called her a whore and a bitch
and you slipped away laughing
now she grants me nothing
I enter the Church of Saint George
I slip in my coin
and light automatic candles
as fragile as I am
as incapable
that I sit in the half-light
sobbing and asking for things
the same thing over and over
and my virgin nothing
not even looking at me
I think you should reconsider
and appeal to her mercy
and soothe her
I am convinced she will forgive you
for she is good and without sin
and rose to heaven incorrupt, you know?
among countless winged angels
whereas us two
you and I, my little one
we have nothing more than this
we will never go to another heaven
nor in death
***
Lullaby
this is the sweetest shipwreck
when I push away your boat
and cradle in my arms
the caress of your hair
and that skin that burns in whispers
to not wake you
The night is naked
the lights flicker with sleep
sleep, pearl
your head on my chest
it overflows with ice creams and sunsets
and suns that come to fade
in soft brown flames
***
If Fear Were Something
if fear were something
it would be a shattered sky
rain of splinters
or a spear of ice
a bracelet of unfulfilled words
on your bare foot
and the certainty of knowing
that fear would be to see you
if fear were something
***
Another Elegy
summer is already here, you know?
and you tend to sorrows
you give peace to a dying man
and to my insatiable thirst
for a versifier
you are an angel of others
under a defeated sky
that splashes crystals
of cobalt and blue
in the distance the children
dig holes in the sand
and think of nothing
only of candles and salt
for it is summer at last
even if you don’t know it
and it is such a summer, my love
so deep in apathy
that even the sea has no waves
nor the earth desires
and if I dig deep
I don’t even wait for you
***
Variations on Chekhov
a modest and melancholic little house
with virginal appearance
delicate as lace
and so light
that I feel able
to carry it to another place
with my own hands
just like a lit candle
for you to extinguish
—————————————
Author: Celso Castro. Title: Bunik Notebook. Publisher: Comba. Sales: Todos tus libros.
BIO
Celso Castro, born in A Coruña in 1962, is a poet and novelist. Author of a dozen novels, among which stand out The Tuner of Rooms (Libros del Silencio, 2010), Among Snakes and Strangers (Destino, 2015), Sylvia (Destino, 2017) or The Great Daydream (The Swiss Army Knife, 2026), for which he has received unanimous critical support, he has found in his hometown the perfect atmosphere for the development of his fictions. That same air is breathed in his poetry, whose early publications he signed with the pseudonym M. de Verganza and through which he achieved lexical and grammatical nakedness that characterizes his work, leading him to dispense with capital letters.