by Olga Orozco
translated with an introduction by Mary Crow
New American Translations Series
Although Olga Orozco has won almost every major literary award from her native
Argentina and her work has been translated into fifteen languages, no single
volume of her poetry exists in English — until now. Award-winning translator/Colorado
Poet Laureate Mary Crow has chosen the finest of Orozco’s poems for this
long-awaited Spanish-English bilingual collection, Engravings Torn from Insomnia.
The
Stranger
He
passed among you,
people
kindly as the fire's warmth in a neighboring hut.
But
what was your accent except a jagged dagger quivering
in the depth of his breast?
He
watched you pass,
days
drowsy as beasts in humble pastures.
But
what was your peace except sand burning under his eyelids?
Far
away the wind blew leaving no cheeks salty.
Far
away a place exists for his shade beside the fresh shades
of his ancestors.
Far
away he will be the absent one less absent now.
Oh,
dry your tears
that
do not quench the thirst of the stranger.
Keep
your prayers:
he
didn't ask for love or any other heavenly exile.
And
let earth lift up its lullabies like an insulted stepmother:
"I
bear a heart as harsh and angry as the leaf of the fig tree."
©
BOA Editions, Ltd 2002
Available editions:
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Cloth
ISBN: 1-929918-31-3
Price: $22.00
Publishing Date: December 2002
Paperback
ISBN: 1-929918-30-5
Price: $13.95
Publishing Date: December 2002
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