No hables de la belleza.
Quebrantarla se traduce en sed
no beber agua hasta morir
no observar el cielo nunca más
apretar fuerte los puños y resistir el golpe
de las olas.
Do not speak of beauty.
Breaking it translates into thirst
do not drink water until dying
do not observe the sky anymore
clench your fists and resist the blow
of the waves.
Y sin embargo, algo nos eleva, algo nos salva
la música de las utopías, quizás, el viento.
No creerás en las santas señales
vas en dirección opuesta:
el mundo es un oleaje
atravesado por largos reflejos, sin fondo.
Inundado en calma
como si lograras descifrar qué hay del otro lado
escribirás sobre el curso de las estrellas, sobre la belleza o la verdad
y traerás de regreso algo invisible
extraviado hace años en una honda fisura.
Cuando envejezcas
sabrás por qué es necesaria la Poesía
en tiempos aciagos.
And nevertheless, something raises us, something saves us
the music of utopias, perhaps, the wind.
You will not believe in the holy signs
You go in the opposite direction:
the world is a tide
pierced by long reflections, bottomless.
Flooded in calm
as if you could decipher what’s on the other side
you will write about the course of the stars, about beauty or the truth
and you will bring back something invisible
lost, years ago, in a deep fissure.
When you get old
you will know why Poetry is necessary
in fateful times.
Esta vez
escoge los colores del cielo
una imagen pasajera.
Las nubes
y sólo eso
sobre mi país devastado.
En el fondo de la noche
permanecen únicamente
la memoria y su inútil eternidad.
This time
choose the colors of the sky
a passing image.
Clouds
and just that
over my devastated country.
In the background of the night
remains only
memory and its useless eternity.
América Merino (Viña del Mar, Chile). She published the book of Poetry Fractals (Cuarto Propio, 2015) and translated from Italian into Spanish the selection of poems E saranno le stelle, by Antonia Pozzi (Ediciones del Trueno, 2020), receiving excellent criticism. During the summer months, she attended the Literature Program of the Istituto della Lingua e Cultura Italiana Galileo Galilei, in Florence, thanks to the scholarship she received from the Chilean Ministry of Cultures. She has participated in various poetry recitals of her work, among which are: The Americas Poetry Festival of New York (2019), Spanish and Latin American Voices in Oxford (University of Oxford, England, 2018) organized by Oxford Writers House and Liberoamérica, International Poetry Festival of the City of Mexico (Mexico, 2018), Zócalo International Book Fair (Mexico, 2017), Meeting of Young Writers of Latin America and the Caribbean (Cuba, 2017), The Poet`s Passage of Old San Juan (Puerto Rico, 2017), Latin American Poetry Festival of Bahía Blanca (Argentina, 2015) and the 20th Century Poetry Conversation (UNAM, Mexico, 2014). She received the Literary Creation Grant for her project Fractals, awarded by the National Council of Culture and the Arts (2012). She has twice received an Honorable Mention in the Gabriela Mistral Literary Games National Prize (2008 and 2013). She was a fellow of the Poetry Workshop of the House-Museum La Sebastiana of the Pablo Neruda Foundation (2004), and a member of the Poetry Reflection Seminar of the same foundation (2004-2014). She is director of the Llave de Sol Cultural Journal of the Federico Santa María Technical University, Sello Editorial USM (2009-2012). She is currently preparing her second Poetry book and is a board member of the Society of Writers of Chile, Valparaíso subsidiary.