Ustedes Y Nosotros
Because I feel guilty that someone came here the other day looking for a translation of “Ustedes y nosotros” by Benedetti only to not find one, here is a very, very simple translation meant only to get across the sense of the poem. Even then I am not totally sure of the sense of the words “cortedad” and “piola” in the original and am not content with the translations of some words I understand, but find hard to express in English.
You, when you love,
Demand comfort,
A cedar bed
And a special mattress.
We, when we love,
Find it easy to make the bed.
How great to have sheets,
How little it matters not to.
You, when you love,
Calculate interest,
And when you fall out of it,
You calculate again,
We, when we love,
Feel as if reborn,
And if we fall out of it,
We do not take it well.
You, when you love,
It’s on another scale,
There are photos, gossip, press
And love is a boom.
We, when we love,
Have a common love,
As simple and as tasty
As being healthy.
You, when you love,
Consult your watch,
Because the time that you lose
Is worth half a million.
We, when we love,
Enjoy it without any rush and with fervor
And it turns out that
The task doesn’t cost us much.
You, when you love,
Go to the psychoanalyst;
He’s the one who determines
If you’re doing right or not.
We, when we love,
Don’t have so much constraint,
Our kind subconscious
Gets set to enjoy itself.
You, when you love,
Demand comfort,
A cedar bed
And a special mattress.
We, when we love,
Find it easy to make the bed.
How great to have sheets,
How little it matters not to.1
- Mario Benedetti : Ustedes y nostros↩