Put yourself in my place

Original version (Spanish):

“Ponte en mi lugar” by Ana Lamela Rey

He parido ocho vidas y he abortado cuatro.
He dormido cien años sin paredes ni cielo, sin charcos para
lavarme los pies.
He comido las sobras de lo que tú no comes, y te he enviado
paquetes de comida como si fueras una de mis hijas.

Ponte en mi lugar.
Una herida, un dolor me dura más que tus enfados o tu sueldo.
Un disparo me suena a agua sucia, estancada.
La basura, los aviones, los cuerpos inmóviles son mi paisaje.

Ponte en mi lugar
Hoy, a las cuatro de la tarde he dejado de ser yo. Algo ha estallado 
y no era un grito ni una tormenta.
Creo que saldré en las noticias.

English version:

“Put yourself in my place” translated by Shilyh Warren

I have borne eight lives and aborted four.
I have slept for one hundred years without walls or sky, without puddles to 
wash my feet.
I have eaten your leftovers, and I have sent you
packages of food as if you were one of my daughters.

Put yourself in my place.
A wound, a hurt that lasts longer than your moods or your money.
A shot sounds to me like dirty water, stagnant.
Garbage, airplanes, still bodies are my landscape.

Put yourself in my place.
Today, at four o’clock in the afternoon I stopped being me. Something shattered
and it wasn’t a scream or a storm.
I think I’ll be on the news.

Aknowledgements:

Originally published in Spanish in the volume La Exhibicionista by Ediciones CGP in 2014 and republished in 2021 by Ed. Gravitaciones (www.gravitaciones.com).

Residing in Asturias, Spain, Ana Lamela Rey is a philologist specialized in Hispanic Literature, a poet, and an accomplished artist, combining her poetic work with storytelling, music and theater. Her most recent poetry collections is Por mí volvería a nacer/Por mi diba volver a nacer (Ediciones Trabe 2025).

Shilyh Warren is an academic, scholar and translator, currently based in Dallas, Texas. Her work has been published in Signs,Camera Obscura, South Atlantic Quarterly, and Feminist Media Histories, among others. Her research covers global film history, feminist theory and documentary studies. Her translated work was launched by AzonaL.