8 by Miguel Ángel López Muñoz, translated by S. Qiouyi Lu
Spanish (original)
Terrible número éste,
sin personalidad ni nada que ofrecer a la naturaleza.
Una potencia par, y tan poco poder que aportar
las esquinas de un dado, una línea de peones, y poco más.
No se han invocado demonios en tu nombre,
tuvo que irse Plutón para que numeraras los planetas.
Pero cuando duermes, la cosa cambia
te vuelves incontable, inabarcable, un Dios infinito del mundo ordinal.
English (translation)
A terrible number,
with no personality and nothing to offer to nature.
A power of two, yet only enough to empower
the corners of a die, a line of pawns, and little else.
Demons have not been summoned in your name,
Pluto had to leave so you could count the planets.
But when you sleep, things change
you become uncountable, unfathomable, an infinite God of the ordinal world.
Photo by Miguel Á. Padriñán on Pexels.com
Authors
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Born and raised in 1981 in Madrid, winner of the UPC Award in 2006 and many other prizes. He has published more than a hundred short stories. His latest work is the horror novella La Perversión Fractal (2018). He was also the singer and lyricist of the band Balamb Garden.
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S. Qiouyi Lu writes, translates, and edits between two coasts of the Pacific. Ær debut biocyberpunk novella In the Watchful City is out now from Tordotcom Publishing, and ær other work has appeared in several award-winning venues. You can find out more about S. at ær website s.qiouyi.lu or on Twitter @sqiouyilu.
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