GUILL ÉN, Nicolás
Rivers
With the Rhine, the Rhone, the Ebro,
my eyes are filled.
With the Tiber, the Thames,
the Volga, the Danube,
my eyes are filled.
But I know the Plata,
and I know the Amazon bathes.
But I know the Mississippi,
and I know the Magdalena bathes.
I know the Almendares,
and I know the San Lorenzo bathes.
I know the Orinoco,
I know they bathe
lands of bitter slime where my voice blooms,
and languid jungles chained by bloody roots.
America, I drink from your cup,
from your tin cup,
great rivers of tears!
Oh, leave me, leave me,
leave me now
…close to the water.
Madrigal
Your belly knows more than your head
and as much as your thighs.
That
is the strong grace
of your naked body.
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cenido a la cintura como a un pequeno mundo, la negra, mujer nueva, avanza en su ligera bata de serpiente.
como una diosa recien llegada, ella trae la palabra inedita... el anca fuerte, la voz, el diente, la mañana y el salto.
bajo un pedazo de piel fresca, y el pie incansable para la pista profunda del tambor.
¿Cuándo fue? No lo sé. Agua del recuerdo voy a navegar.
y yo la miré al pasar: moño de seda en la nuca, bata de cristal, niña de espalda reciente, tacón de reciente andar.
(febril le dije en mí mismo), caña temblando sobre el abismo, ¿quién te empujará? ¿Qué cortador con su mocha te cortará? ¿Qué ingenio con su trapiche te molerá?
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tied around her waist like a little world, The Negress, the new woman, comes forward in her airy serpent morning gown.
like a newly arrived goddess, she brings unspoken words, her solid loins,
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Elegy to Emmett Till
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con sus amigos, con su barrio con su camisa de Domingo con su billete para el cine, con su pupitre y su pizarra, con su pomo de tinta, con su guante de béisbol, con su programa de boxeo con su retrato de Lincoln con su bandera norteamericana,
negro.
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small flower of your banks not yet a root of your trees not yet a trunk in your forests not a stone in your bed not an alligator in your waters: barely a child a dead child, killed and only Black.
with his friends, with his neighborhood with his Sunday best shirt with his ticket for the movies, with his school desk and slate, with his bottle of ink, with his baseball glove, with his boxing program with his portrait of Lincoln with his American flag,
Black.
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