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Poetry

Dawn

By Miguelángel Meza
Translated from Guaraní by Tracy K. Lewis & Miguelángel Meza
A traveler takes to the road in this dreamlike poem by Miguelángel Meza.
Listen to Miguelángel Meza read "Dawn" in the original Guaraní
 
 

By the streaming of the road I go
I enter lift and pass.
Black. I pause, see nothing. Wetness.
Black and streaming the road fragments before me.
Wet I plunge on, all before me flowing.
The road stowing memories huddles dark under a seed-field of stars.
Heavy my forehead. I part thickets of prone branches,
fall, rise again, tread onward.
My road, level now: it bursts, opens,
water boils up from grouped stones, grips me.
I fall free as dawn breaks
white.
Dawn
        breaks
                  white.


Translated from Guaraní by Tracy K. Lewis.

“Ko’ê” © Miguelángel Meza. By arrangement with the author. English translation © 2020 by Tracy K. Lewis. Spanish translation © Miguelángel Meza. All rights reserved.

English Guaraní (Original) Spanish

By the streaming of the road I go
I enter lift and pass.
Black. I pause, see nothing. Wetness.
Black and streaming the road fragments before me.
Wet I plunge on, all before me flowing.
The road stowing memories huddles dark under a seed-field of stars.
Heavy my forehead. I part thickets of prone branches,
fall, rise again, tread onward.
My road, level now: it bursts, opens,
water boils up from grouped stones, grips me.
I fall free as dawn breaks
white.
Dawn
        breaks
                  white.


Translated from Guaraní by Tracy K. Lewis.

“Ko’ê” © Miguelángel Meza. By arrangement with the author. English translation © 2020 by Tracy K. Lewis. Spanish translation © Miguelángel Meza. All rights reserved.

Ko’ê

Tape syryrýre aha
aike amboguy ahasa.
Hû.  Apyta.  Ndahechái. Iñakỹ.
Hû ojeka syryrýva tape.
Che akỹ.  Ajeity.  Syryry.
Tape ypytû mandu’a mbyja týre oiguyru.
Ipohýi chesyva.  Amboguy javorái.
Ha’a.  Apu’ã.  Apyrû.
Ipe cherape.  Osoro.
Ita týre y opupu.  Chejopy,
ha ha’ávo ko’ê hesakã
morotî.
Ko’ê
hesakã
morotî.

Despunte del día

Me desliza el camino,
voy.
Entro, alzando el pliegue oscuro,
paso: me quedo. No veo. Humedad.
La tiniebla rompe el camino deslizante.
Me empapo, me aparto y resbalo.
El camino oscuro va agavillando recuerdos
en la plantación de las estrellas.
Me pesa la frente, abro la maleza
Caigo. Alzándome, a paso firme
avanzo.
Se me allana el camino y aclara.
Borbotea el agua entre las piedras.
Me oprime, final, el momento.
Salgo y despunta
limpio y blanco
el día.
Limpio y blanco el día.

Traducción de Miguelángel Meza.

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