THE COUNTRY OF ICE XIII
And the icebergs of the Andes were
outlined to the right
facing the glaciers of the Pacific
– In the icebergs
of the east
And in the middle: the long and thin
strip:
the frosted homeland of sobs
– In the icebergs
of the west
And the frozen cliff on the left of the sea separated the left
side of the ice and the cliff on the right separated the right
side of the ice
And expanding on the left were the icebergs of the defeat
of pain of death And piled up on the right were the icebergs of
madness of the betrayals of the murders And it was the night
And it was the thick walls of the frozen american night
howling as they saw our crying people move between them
and they were nothing more than remains leftovers
freezing rubble those who crossed screaming there where
all the Pacific is an iceberg and compared to us the icebergs are warm we are devastated marching between those sobs
EL PAÍS DE HIELO XIII
Y los témpanos de los Andes se
recortaban a la derecha
frente a los glaciares del Pacífico
– En los témpanos
del este
Y en el medio: la larga y delgada
franja:
la escarchada patria de sollozos
– En los témpanos
del oeste
Y el congelado paredón de la izquierda del mar apartaba
la izquierda de los hielos y el paredón de la derecha
apartaba los hielos de la derecha
Y a la izquierda se alargaban los témpanos de la derrota
del dolor de la muerte Y a la derecha se amontonaban
los témpanos de la demencia de las traiciones de los
asesinatos Y era la noche
Y eran los murallones de la congelada noche americana
los que bramaban viendo al pueblo nuestro avanzar
llorando entre ellos Y eran sólo restos sobras helados
escombros los que atravesaban gritando allá donde todo
el Pacífico es un témpano y los témpanos son cálidos al
lado nuestro arrasados marchando entre esos sollozos
Raúl Zurita’s books of poems include, among others: Purgatorio (1979), Anteparaíso (1982), El paraíso está vacío (1984), Canto a su amor desaparecido (1985), La vida nueva (1994), and Poemas militantes (2000). His numerous awards include the National Literature Prize of Chile and the Pablo Neruda Prize. He lives in Santiago, Chile, where he is a professor of literature at Universidad Diego Portales. Translated by Daniel Borzutzky, who has translated three of Raúl Zurita’s books, and whose work has been supported by the PEN American Center, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Illinois Arts Council.
Read the rest of NACLA’s 2015 Winter Issue: Mapping the Moment
