You declared war on us
You declared war on us considered us scattered dust a puny animal dawn’s weak lightNow you know we are many friends of the rocks and mountains we know the rivers’ language we speak with the seaside sandNow you know we are not alone thousands of eyes watch over us in the jungle and see us dance with death and see you cry amidst the trees because you too know fear La guerra nos declaraste creíste que éramos polvo esparcido animal sin fuerzas pequeña luz del albaAhora sabes que somos muchos compañeros de las piedras y los montes conocemos el lenguaje de los ríos hablamos con la arena junto al marAhora sabes que no estamos solos miles de ojos nos observan desde la selva y nos ven danzar junto a la muerte y te ven llorar entre los árboles porque tú también conoces el miedo Bicaa lulu’ laadu nalu’ yu dé reeche nga laadu mani’ ma qui gapa stipa biaanihuiini’ telayúYanna ma nannu’ staledu xpinidu nga guié ne gui’xhi’ runibia’du ni riní’ ca guiigu’ rininedu yuxi nexhe’ guriá nisado’Yanna ma nannu’ cadi stubidu nuudu stale bezalú cundaachi’ ndaani’ gui’xhi’ cayuuyaca’ cuyaadu cue’ guendaguti ne cayuuyaca’ lii cayuunalu’ lade ca yaga ca ti lii laaca runibia’lu’ dxiibi *Irma Pineda self-translated the original Zapotec to Spanish
Feature Date
- April 11, 2022
Series
- Translation, What Sparks Poetry
Selected By
Share This Poem
Print This Poem
English Copyright © 2022 by Wendy Call.
All rights reserved.
Reproduced by Poetry Daily with permission.
Wendy Call
Irma Pineda is an Isthmus Zapotec poet and writer. She works as a professor at Universidad Pedagógica Nacional, is a member of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, and writes a column, “The Flower of the Word,” for La Jornada Semanal. She has written various essays about indigenous languages, literature, and education. Pineda’s most recent collections of poetry are Naxiña’ Rului’ladxe’-Rojo Deseo (Pluralia, 2018 y 2021), Chupa Ladxidua’- Dos es mi Corazón (Secretaría de Cultura, 2018) and Nasiá Racaladxe’- Azul Anhelo (UDLAP, 2020).
Pineda’s poetry has been translated to English, Russian, Italian, Portuguese, German, and other languages, and appears in a diversity of magazines and anthologies in America and Europe. In February 2022, a group of poems from didxazá (translated to English by Wendy Call) were published in Poetry Magazine. She has served as the President of Writers in Indigenous Languages and has received grants from FONCA and Sistema Nacional de Creadores de Arte de México.
Axel Rivera
Wendy Call (www.wendycall.com) is co-editor of Telling True Stories: A Nonfiction Writers’ Guide (Plume/Penguin, 2007), author of No Word for Welcome: The Mexican Village Faces the Global Economy (Nebraska, 2011), and translator of two forthcoming books by Irma Pineda: In the Belly of Night and Other Poems (Pluralia/Song Bridge, 2022) and Nostalgia Doesn’t Flow Away Like Riverwater (Deep Vellum, 2023). She has published English translations of more than one hundred of Pineda’s poems in literary journals. A recent Fulbright Scholar in Colombia, Wendy lives in Seattle, on Duwamish land, and in Oaxaca, on Zapotec / Mixtec land.
February 2022
Chicago, Illinois
Editor
Adrian Matejka
Creative Director and Exhibitions Co-curator
Fred Sasaki
Senior Editor
Lindsay Garbutt
Associate Editor
Holly Amos
Associate Editor
Angela Flores
Founded in Chicago by Harriet Monroe in 1912, Poetry is the oldest monthly devoted to verse in the English-speaking world. Harriet Monroe’s “Open Door” policy, set forth in Volume I of the magazine, remains the most succinct statement of Poetry’s mission: to print the best poetry written today, in whatever style, genre, or approach.
Poetry Daily Depends on You
With your support, we make reading the best contemporary poetry a treasured daily experience. Consider a contribution today.