HIGH TREASON
I don’t love my homeland.
Its abstract splendor
is beyond my grasp.
Still (though it sounds bad)
I’d give my life
for ten places there,
certain folks,
ports, forests, deserts, fortresses,
a city in ruins, ashen, monstrous,
various historical figures,
mountains
and three or four rivers.
José Emilio Pacheco
Translated by Katherine M. Hedeen and Víctor Rodríguez Núñez