Editor’s Note: World Literature Today dedicated its September 2023 issue to the indigenous literatures of the Americas. We are proud to feature a few texts from that issue, in multilingual edition, in the present issue of LALT.
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Mamaku mushgoymanta
Niy shuk machula mushgoymanta:
Cay kamachik cay away yachay llanchay khuskan tutayay
Cay Kamachik cay rumi t´ikiy mallkiri qellkay yachay yuyaykuna
Cay Kamachik cay riqsiy qurakuna kara kukuri
Cay kamachik cay wachakuq warmi ima chaskiy kawsay P´uyunqu suyakuy
Cay kamachik cay yachay ñawinchay kawsay saywakuna wañuyri
Cay kamachik cay Yachay intiksiqamunan sumak kawsay;
Willakuq mushgoy, mamaku hap´iy nina imallapas shimimanta
Shimiwanri nina callu phukuy runa sonkoymanta
Imata manajaik´aj cay qunkay munaypay sachamanta makanakuykuna kawsayk.
Hinan ppatmay teksita qatiy yanay
Awkina kamachikri ima pusaykachak runamanta mushgoykuna
Grandmother in the Dream
Said a grandmother while dreaming:
To be a sage is to weave with skill and cast light in the midst of darkness
To be a sage is to write memories by carving into stone and tree
To be a sage is to know the herbs that heal body and soul
To be a sage is to be a midwife who receives life on a bed of hope
To be a sage is to know how to read signs of life and death
To be a sage is to know how to make language and the word flourish
To be a sage is to know how to guide others in the art of living;
Having spoken her dream, the grandmother took some fire in her mouth
And with her tongue breathed hot flame into the human heart
So that memory of the old struggles for life might never be forgotten.
Then she departed for the cosmos as the spirit and sage
Who guides the dreams of our people.
Shimi Wawakuna
Imaypacha wawakuna
Shimi churay
Koyllurkuna k´anchay
Allpakuna taki huc kindiri
Chonccay yawar tikapi
Pay runa shimi cay kawsay muyumanta
Words and Children
When children
Grasp words
The stars shine
The earth sings and
Hummingbirds drink from red flowers
Human language springs to life from a seed
Translated from the Spanish by Daniel Simon
Originally published in World Literature Today, vol. 97, no. 5 (September 2023)
