Ποιειν Και Πραττειν - create and do

Otoniel Guevara

Statement

I take this opportunity to talk to you about a concern. In my country, one of the most violent in the world, according to statistics, we who make up the metaphor Foundation, we make 4 international festivals a year. We go to the villages, where there is no state culture. We have no support from the government, despite its progressive discourse, it does not adequately support this initiative, which is already more than 10 years. One of the main obstacles is that we are unable to pay airfare when wishing to invite poets. That reduces us, makes us quite limited. My question is can we establish a kind of cooperation, to European poets (for the time) who come to attend our festivals but by managing themselves the tickets? Would this be possible from 2015 onward? 

 

 

Defensa Propia / Self Defense

para Arquímides Cruz, en el recuerdo.

Un hombre me amenaza con un arma
Yo lo amenazo con una piscucha

El a lo sumo logrará matarme

Yo
en cambio
podría hacerlo feliz

 

To the memory of Arquímides Cruz.

A man threatens me with a weapon
I threaten him with a kite

He at the most could kill me

I
instead
could make him happy

 

(Translation into English by Karla Koreas) 

 

De creer / From believing

a Mixtli Alejandra,
Gabriela Mazatli
y Selvamaría Mallinalli

Doblo mi rodilla y beso tu frente
¿es acaso tu frente mi cielo
mi ultratumba la razón
de mis desvelos?

No importa cuánto seás mi hija
yo creo en vos
creo en tus diálogos con las paredes
creo en tus velocípedas aventuras
a través de la risa
creo fervientemente en tus mentiras

porque yo nunca tuve un beso en la frente
creo en todo

For Mixlti Alejandra
Gabriela Mazatli
& Selvamaria Mallinalli

I kneel and kiss your forehead
is it that your forehead is my heaven
my ever after the reason
of my sleepless nights?

It doesn’t matter how much you are my daughter
I believe in you
I believe in your dialogues with the walls
I believe in your velocipede adventures
through your laughter
I fervently believe in your lies

because I never had a kiss on my forehead
I believe in everything

 

(Translation into English by Karla Koreas) 


To these I would add a pair of poems but only with a poor machine translation, but hopefully it can be translated later by a sensitive poet.

 

PREPONDERANCIA DEL VERDE / GREEN PREPONDERANCE 

En un laboratorio herméticamente sellado

se planifica la manera más eficaz para defoliar un árbol

 

en lo profundo de nuestras montañas

el árbol

por milésima vez

se prepara

 

para acunar un nido 

Hermetically sealed in a laboratory 

you plan the most effective way to defoliate a tree 

 

deep in our mountains

a tree 

for the thousandth time 

preparing 

 

to cradle a nestfinally this

 

EN ESTE INCENDIO / FIRE IN THIS 

 

Esta es la selva

junto a los esqueletos de los perros los huesitos sin besos de los niños

 

flores y trampas explosivas duermen en sus caminos

el fuego transpira invisible en las calladas telarañas

 

aquí alimento mis diez tercios de magia

 

sobre las calles hay sombreros podridos

y la lluvia

acaricia la espalda de los tiernos cadáveres

 

aquí sostengo esta palabra que se ha vuelto aullido

esta mirada que se tornó relámpago

estos dedos que ejecutan mil oficios

 

aquí hay un niño que duerme con música de suelas

en una desahuciada litera de cartón

y busco la manera busco busco y no encuentro

no encuentro cómo evitar

que lo despierte un grito

una tumba

una bala

 

irremediablemente perdida

This is the jungle

alongside the skeletons of dogs without kissing the bones of children 

 

flowers and booby traps sleep in his ways 

breathes fire invisible in silent cobwebs 

 

here my ten food thirds of magic 

 

on the streets there are rotten hats 

and rain 

caresses the back of the tender bodies 

 

I argue here that this word has become howl 

This look became lightning 

these fingers running thousand trades  

 

here is a child sleeping with music soles 

berth a cardboard evicted 

and look how I look and I find looking 

I can not find how to avoid 

to awaken a shout 

a tomb 

bullet 

irretrievably lost

 

 

 

 

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