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Issue 31
Indigenous Literature

Poems in Quechua from Jarawi

  • by Dida Aguirre García
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  • September, 2024

Jarawi

Aya allpayachu akurani
aya
upallalla chuyunyaq
simiyuq kanallaypaq

urpi ñawillaymi
kausayta munashkan
¡kay!
Wañuy
nina qaqa kañay pachapi
chaki sonqoypi

¡Ay!
Yana allpatam takani
mitu chakiyman
yaku makiyman

paralla chayaykamuy
intilla kanchiykamuy
llapa tulluymi
katkatashkan

chaki sonqoyñataqmi
tallikuykushkan
lambras qasa mayuchanman

¡Ay!
Sirkaypi jintil
yawar mitmaqniy
wichay apullay
qawariwayña
kausayqa
manam kausayñanchu

asnaq
pukium qoltutumushkan
kay
nanaq, ñausa

karu rinri pachapi
aya allpañachu kanipas
¡mamallay, taytallay!
Manañam
kay vida kanichu

jarawillaymi uyarikushkan
kay pacha
anan pachamanta
richaparikunapaq

 

Jarawi1

Have I eaten the soil of the dead
that my tongue should dwindle soundlessly
into a fearful silence? 

My dove eyes
wish so much to live here!
Into Death
into the fire of the rocks
into the burning of the Earth
into my drained heart 

Alas!
I am digging black soil
on my feet of mud
on my hands of water

Rain come right away!
Sun brighten up at once!
All my bones
are shuddering 

And my dry heart
is spilling out
in the ravine
in the lambras trees2
where the small river runs.

Alas!
Venerable Apu,
your ancestral lineage,
blood of jintilis3, flows into my veins.
My loved Mountain Lord,
look at me at once!
Living in this world
is wellbeing no longer.

The fetid Puquio
is outflowing
across this tormented, blind, and deaf Earth.

My dear father, my dear mother,
I am the soil of the dead now.
I am dying among groans and tears.

But my Jarawi is being heard
from this ruined landscape
toward the higher universes
to arouse us
to feel the urge of life. 

 

 

Yana Chirapa

Mana yupiqmi kasqanki
yana puyu punchuyuq
uchku ñawiyuq upallalla
maypitaq makiki kanman
yuraq asiyniykipas 

sumaqta
qamta qawaykuptiypa
mana imam kasqanki 

qanwanmi puriyta munani
ukuyniypi rumi chinkaqta
tapuykunaypaq 

imanasqam
kay pacha wakcha?
Imanasqam
kay tuta mana killayuq?
Imanasqam
llaqtanchikpi

aya
jawan pura, jawan pura
Qorontallaña, kuchpa, kuchpa
sapachallanku
manchariy pinchityaq
tuta chaupimpi?

Yana chirapa wari taytallay
qam piña, piña
wañuchikuq kaq
kay vidapa manam
juchaykichu, ripukusun

qawaykullasaq
yana chirapaykita
pachakunaman
llakiyta anyaykunaypaq
asiyniyta pukuykunaypaq
manchariyniytapas
sonqoykipi pakaykunaypaq. 

 

Yana Chirapa4

You, the one with no footsteps
with a poncho of black cloud
and emptied eyes,
how softly you walk into the night

Where might I find your hands,
your white smile? 

I saw you and I saw you so many times
and you have been nothing. 

I wish I were walking in your company
toward the lost stone
in the depths of my insides

Please, give me your advice:
Why is this life, this time, abandoned?
Why is this night without the moon?
Why do the corpses
stacked like corontas5
one on top of the other
roll and roll alone across our land
in the middle of the anguish that glows
tonight?

My father Wari
Yana Chirapa
Severe Lord
who kills with ire
You are not guilty for this life 

The time has come,
reveal to me your black rainbow,
show it to all the worlds
to let my laments sound
to blow away my smiles
and hide my terror
in your heart.

Translated from Quechua to English by Christian Elguera
The translator expresses his gratitude to the author and the poets Gloria Cáceres Vargas and Fredy Roncalla for their insights and feedback.
From the poetry collection Jarawi (1999)

 

1 Song of death.
2 Traditional tree in Andean landscapes.
3 Ancestors in the Andean world.
4 The Mountain Lord Wari transforms into a black rainbow. Whoever sees this lethal deity dies, vomiting blood.
5 Corn husk.

 

PURCHASE BOOKS FEATURED IN THIS ISSUE ON OUR BOOKSHOP PAGE

 

Photo: ALEX LENZ, Unsplash
  • Dida Aguirre García

Dida Aguirre García (Huancavelica, 1952) is the author of three books of poetry in Quechua and Spanish: Arcilla (1989), Jarawi (1999, National Prize for Poetry in Quechua, Universidad Nacional Federico Villareal, 1999), and Qaparikuy (2012). Her work appears in the anthologies Poesía Peruana: Siglo XX (Vol. II, PETROPERÚ, 1999) and Poetas peruanas de antología (2009). She has taken part in international poetry festivals in Cuba, Venezuela, Colombia, and México. The book Pichka harawikuna: Five Quechua Poets (1998) includes her poems in translation to English.

  • Christian Elguera Olortegui

Christian Elguera Olortegui (1987) was born and raised in Lima, the capital city of Peru. However, he recognizes his family roots in Tingo María (a Peruvian Amazonian town in the province of Huanuco). He earned a bachelor’s degree in Literature from the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos and holds a PhD in Iberian and Latin American Languages and Literatures from the University of Texas at Austin. He also completed a Graduate Portfolio in the program in Native American and Indigenous Studies at this institution. Currently, Christian is an Assistant Professor of Spanish and Latin American Studies at Marist College and, since 2021, he has been a translator and Indigenous Literature correspondent for Latin American Literature Today (LALT). As a creative writer, he has received literary accolades in Peru, such as an honorable mention in the XXI Biennial Copé Short Story Award for his text “El extraño caso del señor Panizza” (2020), the Copé Silver Award for his short story “El último sortilegio de Fernando Pessoa” (2022), and the Copé Gold Award for his first novel, Los espectros (2023). 

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