En el Cerro Santa Lucía

Espejos hechos caudales, lluvias transparentes
nos iluminan en el Cerro Santa Lucía:
por el cielo harto, cristalino, de mediodía
vibran ondas intensas, andinas, relucientes.

Subimos y bajamos, en curvas cual serpientes,
entre estatuas, arcos, fuentes, untada alegría.
Con prisa o con pereza llega la epifanía
de vernos y conocernos entre tantas gentes.

Y en el silencio de la cima, el gran panorama:
la ciudad tendida, la cordillera pintada;
la brisa que nos abraza, a veces aun a besos,

y nos susurra, con cosquillas, el común drama
de la jornada del sol por la noche tapada
y la sangre fugaz que surge de nuestros huesos.

Celestial Excavations

It's only a slight exaggeration to say that you can't trip over a stone in Mexico City without uncovering an Aztec artifact. The 2006 discovery of the Tlaltecuhtli is only the latest monolithic find, at a site that may yet reveal the tomb of Ahuizotl (8th Tlatoani of Mexico-Tenochtitlan 1486-1502).

Here is a list of just a few of the most recognized monoliths from the Valle de Anahuac (Mexico City and surrounding areas), with certain data as I could find them (location and year unearthed, dimensions, material, and Wikipedia or Flickr image links):

(sun) Tonatiuh / Sun Stone ("Aztec Calendar"): Mexico City Zócalo, 1790
24 tons, 11.7 ft. diameter, black basalt

(earth) Coatlicue: Mexico City Zócalo, 1790
[weight], 8.5 ft tall, [material]

(plants) Xochipilli: side of the volcano Popocatéptl near Tlalmanalco, Estado de México, mid-1800s
[weight], approx. 4 ft. x 2 ft., volcanic rock

(rain) Tlaloc: Coatlinchan, Estado de México, 1964 or earlier
125 tons, [height], [material]

(moon) Coyolxauhqui: Mexico City Zócalo, at the foot of what was then discovered to be the Templo Mayor, 1978
8 tons, 10.6 x 10.1 ft, volcanic rock

(earth) Tlaltecutli: Mexico City Zócalo, to one side of the Templo Mayor, 2006
12 tons, 13.7 x 11.9 ft, pink andesite

When the Sun Stone was unearthed in 1790, it was something of a second discovery; a Spanish priest had ordered it buried sometime in the mid-16th century. For many years into the 19th century, the Sun Stone was displayed on an outside wall of the Mexico City Cathedral! Scholars don't always agree on the Sun Stone's iconography - some think the central image is the face of Tlaltecutli, not Tonatiuh. Some believe the twin fire serpents (xiuhcoatl, a kind of divine weapon) forming the outermost circle are the gods Quetzalcóatl and Ehécatl, others believe they are Xiuhtecutli and Tonatiuh.

In any case what strikes me is the inversion implied by excavations into the earth to find representations of the moon, the sun, and other phemonena of the sky: it's all cosmic dust in the wind.

Meditação sobre o Tesão

Aquele estado de tesão
é uma deliciosa tensão,
uma enorme provocação!
Paquero e desejo são
a adiação
a prolongação -
é uma perpetuação,
um momento que não é não:
é uma monumentação
da possibilitação.

De Exu vem a inspiração
para meditar nas chamas do tesão.
É ele que paira no portão –
vai entrar sim ou vai sair não?
De uma mão ou outra mão,
seja gato ou seja cão,
seja inverno ou seja verão -
os contrários em união
quando todas as opções dão!

A dúvida que dura um tempão
torna-se uma forte afirmação.

Paradise Truncated

I see them approach*
the way that the light through the folia*...it's gold*
the way that the mist from the waterfall
their bronze and burnished skin uninterrupt*
then, parrots: concentrated explosions of color and sound
monkeys of several kin*, a sloth: kinetic and potential, spring from / hang from
abundan* trees reach for light
round, sticky, sweat*, the sun perm*
butterflies bubble, resplend transcend efferv*
I see them kiss, embrace in the waterfall:
an instan* washes over an instan* to sculpt a constan*
kinetic springs, finds potential
I see them, their torsos, their trun* forc* the water down new riv*
which way to go, what will be*
what are they searching for
have they found parad*

Love and Light in Brazil

Two Poems by José Carlos Limeira

The supercool online literary magazine qarrtsiluni is featuring my translations of two poems by my friend and collaborator José Carlos Limeira. The poems, "Apagões" ("Blackouts") and "Mágica" ("Enchantment") came online today as part of the magazine's issue on Translation (January-April 2011). You can listen to José Carlos and to me as you read along here!

You can also listen to two of my colleagues, Huiwen Zhang and Victor Udwin, performing Huiwen's translations "Meditation on the Road: Chinese Wartime Sonnets by Feng Zhi."