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Issue 24
Poetry

Three Poems

  • by Minerva Margarita Villarreal

Credo

It’s true, Ligia, you’re a feminist
except when,
arrow in flight,
a phallus passes among us.

 


Till Death Do Us Part

To free myself from you
I’ll build an enormous palace;
so many rooms and servants
the whole city will fit inside.
Then
—queen in her labyrinth—
you’ll roam until you are lost. 

 

 

Understanding Lesbia

O my Catullus the night wanderer,
my Catullus the ladies’ man, loved by all,
don’t hurt me further
by promising what will not be…
Against Quintus, my husband, we can do nothing.
So go on,
dress the legs of other women in my stockings.

 

 

Translated by Helena Dunsmoor
Poems from De amor y furia: Epigramísticos

 

Photo: Mexican poet Minerva Margarita Villarreal at the Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León.
  • Minerva Margarita Villarreal

Photo: Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León

Minerva Margarita Villarreal (1957-2019) wrote in Spanish and was the author of several books of poetry, most notably El corazón más secreto (winner of the international Jaime Sabines poetry prize, 1994), Adamar, Tálamo (published in 2013 by Hiperión and winner of the 2010 international poetry prize to commemorate the bicentenary of Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz), Las maneras del agua (winner of the Aguascalientes Fine Arts Poetry Prize, 2016 and the Lira de Oro Hispanic-American Poetry Prize, 2017), as well as Vike: Un animal dentro de mí, which has been described by critics as a new genre, the documentary poem. She was a fellow of Mexico’s Sistema Nacional de Creadores de Arte. She held an M.A. from the Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León, where she was Director of the Capilla Alfonsina Biblioteca Universitaria as well as an international poetry collection, El Oro de los Tigres, in honor of Alfonso Reyes’ work as a translator. She was an Associate Member of the Seminario de Cultura Mexicana, a Member of the Consejo Honorario de la Coordinación de la Memoria Histórica y Cultural de la Presidencia de la República, and a Corresponding Member of the Academia Mexicana de la Lengua.

  • Helena Dunsmoor
helenadunsmoor20211

Helena Dunsmoor translates, teaches and writes in Canada, where she acquired a PhD in Latin American literature. She has published poetry, interviews, literary criticism, and literary translations.

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