Poetry in Translation Issue
Volume 16:3, Summer 2015
Sowing
There is so much silence in skin
and only the hands cover us.
Cold enters as far as the womb
a river watching.
One must discover ways
to retrace grave words
to think dying
makes miracles
that the earth and below
belong to us.
It must be born within
like ore,
to split the moon in two,
to share the days of rain,
to walk into depth
like a tree, like grass,
to fall up to the eyes
where death
guards us
constantly.
Siembra
Hay tanto silencio en la piel
y sólo nos cubren los manos.
Entra el frío hasta el vientre
como un río buscando.
Hay que descubrir caminos
desandar palabras graves
pensar que morir
es hacer Milagros
que el debajo y la tierra
nos pertenecen.
Hay que nacer de adentro
como mineral,
partir la luna en dos,
repartir los días de lluvia,
caminar hasta el fondo,
como el árbol, como la hierba,
caer hasta los ojos
donde nos guarda
constante
la muerte.
Christina Daub co-founded The Plum Review, the Plum Writer's Retreats and ran the Plum Reading Series for several years in DC. Recent poems appear in the anthologies Full Moon on K Street: Poems About Washington, DC, 180 More: Extraordinary Poems for Every Day, and The Paradelle. She is a recipient of a Young American Poet's award and her work has been translated into Russian, Italian and German. She has taught Creative Writing and Poetry in the English Department at George Washington University and has taught in the Maryland and Virginia Poets-in-the-Schools programs as well as to adults for many years at The Writer's Center. To read more by this author: Winter 2000 issue Whitman issue
Blanca Wiethüchter (1947-2004), from Bolivia, authored several volumes of poetry. Her writing spanned three decades and in addition to being an award-winning poet, she was a historian and essayist, and published a novel and three collections of short stories. She taught at the Catholic University of Bolivia and the Higher University of San Andrés. She is considered an iconic female voice of late 20th century Bolivian poetry and one of the most recognized authors of contemporary Bolivian literature.