Night Watch / Ronda de noche: Translation from the Spanish of Ana Becciu's Ronda de noche (1999)

Becciú’s ouvre is distilled, succinct, because such are the requirements of its theme. Her observations of the amorous act consist of brief notes […], more like breath than writing. The love chronicle that Becciú develops in her poems is one of migrations, of transportation (in the religious sense), of measured time, of surprising revelations that don’t allow for detailed explanations or long pages of confidences. Each amorous moment is unique, ungraspable, and hence, must be caught quickly, in speech rather than writing. Because, like Becciú herself says with impeccable clarity in Night Watch, ‘the mouth makes love, with the mouth love is said‘. Nobody knows this better than Ana Becciú.

Alberto Manguel