Dos poemas trilingües de Stolen Flower

por Irma Pineda

June, 2026

Qui ziaanadi’ guelacahui
Ne qui zucaadiaga’ guirasi dxi xquendarigani yuuba
qui racaladxe’ guna’ stiidxayuubalu’
Gundisalú ti ma yaca gueedandá’ siadoguie’
Gubidxa guinaaze’ laanu ma zuhua’nu lu neza
Paraa ndi’ chuunu pa ma binidé cabe lidxinu la?
Guzaru’ bizana’
Yaga yooxho’ gucabi laanu

No será eterna la noche oscura
Ni escucharé por siempre el silencio de tu dolor
no quiero oír más tus lamentos
Levanta los ojos que pronto llegará la flor de la mañana
El sol debe encontrarnos de pie sobre el camino
¿Hacia dónde iremos si nuestro hogar fue destrozado?
Avanza hermano
Los árboles viejos nos responderán

This dark night won’t last forever
Nor will I listen to the silence of your pain
I don’t want to hear your crying
Lift your eyes so the morning will soon blossom
The sun will find us already on the path
Where will we go if our home is destroyed?
Keep going brother
The old trees replied

Gundisa’ nabana’ stiu’ benda’
bisigapa laaca’ lade bandaga guie’ stia’
biyubi ruaa guiigu’ ni ridi’dilaaga’ xquidxinu
ra guedandou’ cue’ bidxummi
bidxii de’chu’ nisa ni rizá sica ti beenda’ ca
ne bindaa guie’ ca lu xhi’quelu’
quepe gudxiguetalulu’
guie’stiá ne nisa
nitiicasi yuuba’ zineca’

Levanta tus tristezas hermana
guárdalas entre las hojas de la albahaca
busca la ribera del río que atraviesa nuestro pueblo
cuando llegues junto al chamizo
dale la espalda al agua que serpentea
y sobre tus hombros lanza todas las ramas
no vuelvas a mirar hacia atrás
la albahaca y el agua
tus penas se llevarán

Gather up your sorrows, my sister
hide them among basil’s healing leaves
find the riverbank wending through our village
when you arrive at the dry bushes
turn your back on the water snaking its way
and toss all the branches over your shoulder
don’t look back
the basil and riverwater
will carry away your pain

Poemas traducidos del didxazá y el español al inglés por Wendy Call

Poemas de Stolen Flower de Irma Pineda, traducido por Wendy Call, publicado en el marco de la seria Margellos World Republic of Letters por Yale University Press.

Stolen Flower ya está disponible por Yale University Press.

¡Compra libros de los autores y traductores incluidos en este número en nuestra página de Bookshop!

Foto: Ursula Castillo, Unsplash.

Irma Pineda

Photo: Wendy Call

Irma Pineda is among the most prominent Indigenous-language poets of the Americas, as well as a leading activist on human rights issues. She is the author of ten bilingual Didxazá-Spanish books of poetry, three books of poetry in Spanish, and three trilingual books in Wendy Call’s English translation. Her poems are widely anthologized and have also been translated into Estonian, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, and Serbian. She writes a biweekly newsmagazine column for the national Mexican newspaper La Jornada and was the first woman to serve as president of Mexico’s National Organization of Writers in Indigenous Languages (ELIAC). She is currently a legislator in the Oaxacan State Congress and from 2020 through 2022 served as one of two representatives of Latin America’s Indigenous peoples at the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. A long-time professor at the National Teachers University in Ixtepec, Oaxaca, Pineda is also a member of Mexico’s National Academy for Artists and Creators (SNCA). She lives in her hometown of Juchitán, Oaxaca.

Wendy Call

Photo: Axel Rivera

Wendy Call is the author, co-editor, or (co-)translator of ten books and two chapbooks. She co-edited the craft anthology Telling True Stories: A Nonfiction Writers’ Guide and the annual Best Literary Translations, published by Deep Vellum each spring. Her creative nonfiction book No Word for Welcome: The Mexican Village Faces the Global Economy and her co-translation of Mikeas Sánchez’s trilingual book How to Be a Good Savage and Other Poems both won Gold Medals from the International Latino Book Awards. Together with Irma Pineda, she received the 2022 John Frederick Nims Prize in Translation from the Poetry Foundation. She has served as Translator in Residence at the University of Iowa and Fulbright Core (Faculty) Scholar to Colombia. She teaches nonfiction in the Rainier Writing Workshop MFA and lives on Duwamish land, in Seattle, and on Zapotec and Mixtec land, in Oaxaca. Learn more at her website: www.wendycall.com.