Poems by Enriqueta Lunez
Translated from Tsotsil into Spanish by Enriqueta Lunez
Translated from the Spanish by Clare Sullivan
When you cut down a tree,
When you cut down a tree,
do so under a full moon.
Otherwise the moths
will gnaw away support beams
from your home and memory.
§
Mi oy bu la lomes jpets’ te’
lomeso k’alal lek setel sat li jme’metike
mi mu’yuk la ch’un
li xchanul te’e
sbolajesba’ xchichin komel syoyal sk’ulejal ana.
§
Cuando derribes un árbol
hazlo en luna llena
de no ser así
las polillas carcomerán
los horcones de tu casa y memoria.
Fireflies disappear from the landscape
Fireflies disappear from the landscape
orphans of light, we forget our ancestors’ words.
§
Li xkukavetike a’balxa bu xvulik ta lok’el
aboljbatik li sk’op a’yej yu’un me’el moletike ja’ jech xch’ay batel.
§
Las luciérnagas desaparecen del paisaje,
huérfanas de luz las palabras de los mayores se olvidan.
Enriqueta Lunez (San Juan de Chamula, Chiapas, Mexico) composes her poetry in Tsotsil and translates it into Spanish. Her bilingual anthologies Sk’eoj Jme’tik U/Cantos de Luna (PLURALIA EDICIONES, 2013) and Tajimol Ch’ulelaletik/Juego de Nahuales (SEP 2008) were supported by the National System for Artistic Creation in Mexico (SNCA). She directs the Cultural Center of Chamula in Chiapas, Mexico.
Clare Sullivan, professor of Spanish at the University of Louisville, teaches language, poetry, and translation. Her collaborative translations of Natalia Toledo and Enriqueta Lunez have appeared in Phoneme Media and Ugly Duckling Presse. Deche bitoope/El dorso del cangrejo/Carapace Dancer by Natalia Toledo is forthcoming from Deep Vellum.
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