Blanca Castellón was born in Managua in 1958. Her publications include Ama del espíritu (1995), Flotaciones (1998), Orilla opuesta (2000, first prize Internacional Instituto de Estudios Modernistas, Valencia, Spain), Los juegos de Elisa (2005) and Mentor de l’esprit (Paris, 2007). Her work has appeared in many national and international anthologies and has been translated into various languages. She is a member and co-founder of ANIDE, the Nicaraguan Writers’ Association. She has been vice president of the Nicaraguan Writers’ Center, a member of the board of the Institute of Hispanic Culture, and is vice president of the International Poetry Festival of Granada. Cactus body, a chapbook of Blanca’s poems, translated by Roger Hickin, will be published later this year by Cold Hub Press.
La experiencia de leer [a Blanca Castellón] es la de asomarse a un espacio
donde la belleza flota como un espíritu sobre las aguas y hay dentro del poema
una vitalidad que se percibe, si no con la razón, con la piel y los poros.
To read [Blanca Castellón] is to look into a space where beauty like a spirit floats
on the waters . . . within the poem there is a vitality to be sensed not by reason
but through the pores of one’s skin.
– Giaconda Belli
Roger Hickin (b. 1951) is a New Zealand visual artist and poet. His Waiting for the Transport and The Situation & other poems appeared in 2009. His Cold Hub Press publishes New Zealand poetry as well as international poetry in several languages. He has published two chapbooks of his translations of the Chilean poet Sergio Badilla Castillo, La cabeza de la Medusa/ The Medusa’s head (2012) and Espectros y sombras/ Ghosts & shadows (2013).
Sin embargo
a veces la tierra es cariñosa
Es saludable abandonarse
a los besos que la tierra
con sus labios morenos
le regala a los pies
antes de confabular
con los volcanes
y hacernos temblar
con sus reclamos
Yo aprovecho esos días
para acariciarla descalza
le froto
el vientre
el ocre
la grama
el fruto
abro ventanas
y susurro
¡te quiero!
a veces se queda en silencio
como cuando estás ausente
a veces me contesta
con florecillas blancas
o algún durazno
y otras veces se humedece
de puro cariño que me tiene.
Sometimes however
earth is affectionate
earth is affectionate
How good it is to surrender
to the kisses earth
with dark lips
showers upon our feet
before she connives
with volcanoes
and causes us to tremble
with her demands
I use these days
to give her barefoot caresses
I rub her belly
her ochre
her ochre
her grass
her fruit
I open windows
and whisper
I love you!
sometimes she’s quiet
as when you’re absent
sometimes she replies
with white flowers
or a peach
and other times she’s wet
with the sheer love she feels for me.
with the sheer love she feels for me.
Diez veces afuera
con su adentro correspondiente
I
Afuera
está el desierto
con ganas de ser rio
hay risas que no escucho
y gente que camina
con el oído ciego
afuera no hay abrazos
hay prisa y mucho abismo
los puentes se han perdido
II
Afuera
no hay perros en la calle
ni tortuguitas rojas
ni una sola lagartija que
tome el sol en la azotea
III
Afuera
está la luna con heridas
abiertas en el pecho
una plaga de poetas
contamina el silencio
el árbol dice adiós a sus raíces
y nadie se entristece
el arte como el crimen
deja su estela de evidencias
IV
Afuera
hay trapos sucios
expuestos sin pudor
la basura es profunda
afuera hay asco
es profundo el pasado
es profundo el futuro
hay vómitos resecos
en el cráter de un volcán
abundan los campos
de lamentación
hay Washington
Irak
Somalia
Haití
V
Afuera
es peligroso
que nos rompan el encanto
hay un continuo movimiento
de versos negros en los labios
afuera tengo alarma
los nombres dulces
se acabaron
VI
Afuera
no hay lecho seguro
ni sabana sin mancha
no hay ojo sano en el mirar
no hay distancias livianas
ni madre
ni padre
afuera está el paisaje
con letras olvidadas
VII
Afuera
un niño rompe
en llanto la espera
hay llagas en la sombra
trafico de obstinaciones
y otros estupefacientes
libros que nadie leerá
afuera está la ausencia
VIII
Afuera hay pruebas fidedignas
de ángeles que hacen llover café
hay duendes
fotografías viejas
flores inteligentes que saben
marchitarse a tiempo
afuera duele el sueño
y suena el mal en los timbales
se amontonan
las grietas en la tierra
IX
Afuera
los pobres regresan
a morir en las trampas
hace hambre y
horizonte cerrado
afuera es largo
angosto
seco
hay polvo
huesos
y cuerpos confundidos
en el cielo común
X
Afuera
hay otro afuera
en construcción.
XI
Adentro
El gozo está aquí adentro
bien adentro
aquí aparece el chorro de agua
cuando excavas
adentro hay Nicaragua.
Outside times ten
and one within
I
Outside
is desert
that wants to be river
there’s laughter I don’t listen to
and folk who go about
with ears that are blind
outside hugs are not given
there’s haste and huge abysses
bridges have gone missing
II
Outside
there are no dogs in the street
no tiny red turtles
not a single sunbathing lizard
on a rooftop
III
Outside
is the moon
whose breast gapes with wounds
a plague of poets
fouls the silence
the tree says goodbye to its roots
and nobody feels sad
art like crime
leaves a trail of clues
IV
Outside
there’s dirty linen
shamelessly displayed
trash is deep
outside it’s sickening
deep is the past
deep the future
there’s dried-up vomit
in the volcano’s crater
field on field
of lamentation
there’s Washington
Iraq
Somalia
Haiti
V
Outside
it’s dangerous
to break the spell
there are black verses forever
on everyone’s lips
outside I panic
the sweet names
are exhausted
VI
Outside
there’s no cosy bed
no sheet without stains
no eye pure in its seeing
no easy distances
no mother
no father
outside is a landscape
of forgotten letters
VII
Outside
a child ends its waiting
in tears
there are ulcers in the shadows
traffic in caprice
and other drugs
books no one will read
outside is absence
VIII
Outside there’s reliable evidence
of angels who rain down coffee
there are tricksters
old photographs
clever flowers
that can wither on cue
outside dreams hurt
and drums rumble with evil
cracks in the earth
are spreading
IX
Outside
the poor come back
to die in traps
there’s hunger and
a closed horizon
outside is long
narrow
dry
there’s dust
bones
and a welter of bodies
in a common sky
X
Outside
another outside
is being built.
XI
Within
joy is here within
deep within
dig
and water gushes
within there is Nicaragua.
Chapuzón
Qué ganas de hundirse
en el corazón tuyo
que no tienes
eso también es poesía
andar buscando
lugares que no existen.
Dive
The urge to plunge
into the heart
you do not have
that too is poetry
to go hunting
for places that don’t exist.
spanish texts © 2013 Blanca Castellón
translations © 2013 Roger Hickin
poems as translation that teeter on the edge of mawkish sentiment but never topple, thankfully - Stephen Oliver
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