MARÍA CALCAÑO
Cosmos
Una gran desnudez:
mi cuerpo
y la noche...
!Pero sueño en el alba!
Alba:
abertura de sangre
y de alas.
Y el pájaro
dueño del bosque
con un trino...
!La vida
es este montón de tierra fértil!
El hombre
y yo
somos la quimera.
Dios
en su grave verdad.
Y sobre nosotros
como una maldición
esta sombra monstruosa...
Una gran desnudez:
mi cuerpo
y la noche...
!Pero sueño en el alba!
Alba:
abertura de sangre
y de alas.
Y el pájaro
dueño del bosque
con un trino...
!La vida
es este montón de tierra fértil!
El hombre
y yo
somos la quimera.
Dios
en su grave verdad.
Y sobre nosotros
como una maldición
esta sombra monstruosa...
Cosmos
A great nakedness:
my body
and the night...
But I dream in the dawn!
Dawn:
wound of blood
and of wings.
And the bird
owner of the woods
with a tweet...
Life
is this mound of fertile earth!
The man
and I
we are the illusion.
God
in his grave truth.
And hovering over us
like a curse
is this monstrous shade.
A great nakedness:
my body
and the night...
But I dream in the dawn!
Dawn:
wound of blood
and of wings.
And the bird
owner of the woods
with a tweet...
Life
is this mound of fertile earth!
The man
and I
we are the illusion.
God
in his grave truth.
And hovering over us
like a curse
is this monstrous shade.
Cuando me muera
Cuando me muera
di, madrecita: ?será en la tierra
del cementerio
donde me pudra?
!Que horror me diera
crecer en esos sepulcros tristes!
Bajo los árboles,
En la sombra que tú conoces
bien puedo, madre,
quedarme siempre...
tú que eres santa,
tú que eres buena,
tú que eres todo para mi vida,
dame ese hueco donde repose
libre de verjas,
libre de cruces!
Cuando me muera
di, madrecita, ?será en la tierra
del cementerio
donde me pudra?
Cuando me muera
di, madrecita: ?será en la tierra
del cementerio
donde me pudra?
!Que horror me diera
crecer en esos sepulcros tristes!
Bajo los árboles,
En la sombra que tú conoces
bien puedo, madre,
quedarme siempre...
tú que eres santa,
tú que eres buena,
tú que eres todo para mi vida,
dame ese hueco donde repose
libre de verjas,
libre de cruces!
Cuando me muera
di, madrecita, ?será en la tierra
del cementerio
donde me pudra?
When I Die
When I die
tell me, mother, will it be in the ground
of the cemetery
that I rot?
What horror it would give me
to grow in those sad sepulchers!
Underneath the trees,
In the shade that you recognize
well I can, mother,
stay here forever...
you who are a saint
you who are good,
you who are everything to my life,
give me that hole where you rest
free from iron gates,
free from crosses!
When I die
tell me, mother, will I rot
in the ground
of the cemetery?
When I die
tell me, mother, will it be in the ground
of the cemetery
that I rot?
What horror it would give me
to grow in those sad sepulchers!
Underneath the trees,
In the shade that you recognize
well I can, mother,
stay here forever...
you who are a saint
you who are good,
you who are everything to my life,
give me that hole where you rest
free from iron gates,
free from crosses!
When I die
tell me, mother, will I rot
in the ground
of the cemetery?
––––
Valerie is a Venezuelan-American poet and bookmaker from Hallandale Beach, Florida. She earned an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Notre Dame and is a recipient of the Samuel and Mary Ann Hazo Award for Poetry.
María Calcaño (1906-1956) wrote poetry that challenged the morality of the male-dominated culture and literary scene of Venezuela. Although Calcaño was writing in the Avant-Garde movement of Latin America, her work was ironically rejected for its experimental forms and themes. While her contemporaries were writing poetry around social topics and honoring aesthetic form, Calcaño began to define in print for the first time the identity, and desire of women by exploring a subversive eroticism, marking the beginning of female-centered poetics in the Venezuelan literary canon.
María Calcaño published three collections of poetry; Alas fatales (Fatal Wings, 1935), Canciones que oyeron mis últimas muñecas (Songs that My Last Dolls Heard 1956), and Entre la luna y los hombres (Between the Moon and Men, 1961). Entre la luna y los hombres was published posthomously.