Two Quechua Poems

Fredy Chikangana, Daniel Simon

World Literature Today, Volume 97, Number 5, September - October

2023, p. 33 (Article)

Published by University of Oklahoma

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1353/wlt.2023.a904264

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https://muse.jhu.edu/article/904264

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k POETRY

Two Quechua y
Poems Quechua poet and speaker
Fredy Chikangana is from
By Fredy Chikangana the Yanakuna Mitmak
Translated by Daniel Simon Nation in the Yurak Mayu
territory of Colombia. His
Indigenous name is Wiñay
Mallki, which means “root
that remains over time.” The prizewinning
author of two verse collections, he has
participated in national and international
poetry events in Indigenous languages, and
Words and Children his poems have been translated into multiple
languages. He has worked on strengthening
Quechua Yanakuna Mitmak identity and
When children oralitura, work that he shares with his Native
Grasp words brothers and sisters throughout the Americas.
The stars shine
The earth sings and
Hummingbirds drink from red flowers
Human language springs to life from a seed A poet, essayist, and
translator, Daniel Simon
is WLT’s assistant director
and editor in chief. His
most recent anthology
project, Dispatches from

Grandmother the Republic of Letters,

was a Publishers Weekly starred pick in 2020.

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.
Translations from the Spanish

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