Allow the water to fill the glass
and spill over
Die without ever existing
Wait
***
Let’s assume I’ll do the same thing
all my life
I shouldn’t worry
but it worries me
Pick up the thread
thread the needle
bind all the fears together with yawns
***
If the firefly doesn’t flicker
there’s probably too much light
Translated by Geneviève Gauvreau, Gonzalo Piñeros, and Sophie M. Lavoie
Juan Guillermo Sánchez was born in Bakatá-Andes in 1980. He has published the poetry books Rio (2010) and Salvia (2014); the book of short stories Diarios de nada (2011); the novels Balada / Track (2012) and Elevador (2015); the anthology Indigenous Message of Water (2014); and the research project Memory and Invention in the Poetry of Humberto Ak'abal (2011). In 2016, he was awarded with the National Prize for Literature in Colombia, granted by the University of Antioquia. He is currently a professor at UNC-Asheville.
Etymologically, the word Mapuche blends the Mapuzungun word “mapu,” meaning “land,” with “che,” meaning “people.” In other words, the Mapuche self-identify as “the people of the land.” Moreover, the preposition…
