From Guerrilla Blooms

Abstract

From Guerrilla Blooms translated from the Spanish by Edith Adams Translated by Edith Adams (bio) It's hard to say:is this a tapiroris this fear I can't decideif the image existedin this universeof things Becausetapir and fearlay outstretchedin reposeto the eclipse priorto their words Just as I was also myselfbefore the creation of this poem [End Page 65] We carry traces of blood stampedupon gold and brown skin A painting that sketches the map of the stars —that is our language— Not a word that imitates but a figure that's traced [End Page 66] A frenzy of vultures wait till we fall How many sisters have fallen already?I look toward the hills:black clouds and plantations We don't have a marching bandbut once it rained fishI ask myself what would've happenedif theyhad neverarrived They? He? Whichwordto name Whichlandto maim I don't know if we arecatastropheor the dream of the absentbird [End Page 67] Daniela Catrileo Daniela Catrileo is a writer, artist, activist, and professor of philosophy. She is a member of the Colectivo Mapuche Rangiñtulewfü and part of the editorial team for Yene. She has published two collections of poetry: Río herido (Edicola Ediciones, 2016) and Guerra florida (Del Aire Editores, 2018); two chapbooks: El territorio del viaje (Archipiélago 2017, Edicola Ediciones 2022) and Las aguas dejaron de unirse a otras aguas (Libros del Pez Espiral, 2020); and a book of short stories: Piñen (Libros del Pez Espiral, 2019). Her other projects explore artistic formats such as performance, video art, and sound-visual poetry. Edith Adams Edith Adams is a literary translator from Spanish into English. She is currently completing her PhD in comparative literature at the University of Southern California and is an alumna of the Bread Loaf Translators’ Conference, the Kenyon Review Literary Translation Workshop, and the Banff International Literary Translation Centre. Her translations have appeared or are forthcoming in Northwest Review, Guernica, Words without Borders, and elsewhere. Copyright © 2022 Middlebury College