Somewhere beyond a 4th grade reading level

“Somos culpables de nacimiento, cada acción nuestra afloja la soga que dejará caer la guillotina que tumbará nuestras cabezas sobre la paja de la historia.”

– La Nada Cotidiana

“We are guilty from birth, each action loosening the rope that will drop the guillotine upon our heads, knocking them into the basket of history.”

– The Everyday Nothingness

That’s a quote from a novel I just read by the exiled Cuban author, Zoé Valdés. For some reason the language of the line just stuck out to me as very poetic. I also just thought that it was neat how she used such macabre imagery to describe something as ordinary as the passage of time between birth and death. Before I sound too pretentious, just let me say that despite reading a lot of books in Peace Corps, I’m still just as obtuse about the deep meaning and symbolism within poetry and literature as I have always been.