misteerie:ecc-poetry:La llorona / campo de concentraciónElisa ChavezNacida María, se llaman “La Llor
misteerie:ecc-poetry:La llorona / campo de concentraciónElisa ChavezNacida María, se llaman “La Llorona" porque sus gritos hacen sangrar las orejas de poderosos hombres. Cortan el aire, llamando la ruina como tormenta.Se niegan a decirle dónde están sus hijes. Su único crimen es cruzar. Ella llora porque sus hijes están en jaulas. Están cubiertes de heces, moco, leche materna. Los carceleros no les dejan dormir, y sin dormir no pueden soñar.La llorona ronda la orilla del río, rasgando el vestido blanco.Los carceleros se molestan por su falta de civismo: están ahogando a niñes y preferían hacerlo en paz.El alarido de la llorona clama justicia:“¿Dónde están mis hijes?”La Llorona was a selfish woman.Beautiful but shallow. (Aren’t they all?)Her children interfered with her ambition, so she dragged them to the riverbed.When the monster mama crossed into heaven, she concealed her crimes, and would not tell the angelswhere her children were. They said to her, “You cannot enter unless you do it the right way,” and turned her from heaven’s border.Don’t let La Llorona catch you by the river, where she still searches for the anchor of her babies. She haunts the banksin her bone-white dress and bloody reaching nails, howling down the sun with her cries:“WHERE ARE MY CHILDREN?”(Alternative design/format here.) Born María, they are called “La Llorona”*because her screamsMake the ears ofpowerful men bleed.They cut through the air,calling the ruina thunderstorm.*They refuse to tell herWhere her children are.Her only crime is crossing.She cries becauseher children are in cages.They are covered with scum*, snot,breast milk. The jailerdoesn’t let them sleep,and without sleep they can not dream.La Llorona runs along the river bank,tearing the white dress.The jailers are botheredby her lack of civility:They are drowning childrenand preferred to do so in peace.The shrieks of La Llorona cry out for justice:“¿Dónde están mis hijes?”*spanish translation into english (I am not fluent in spanish nor am i a translator)* I didn’t translate La LLorona because I thought that the author was using it as a title for the woman this poem is about. It’s a reference to a Latine American folktale and translates directly as the weeping woman.*this sentence gave me some difficulty so if anyone has alternate ideas on how to translate it please lmk*this word heces couldve been translated as feces but that seemed to formal imo & i liked the alliteration *didnt translate the last line bc imo the woman in this poem is Latine and would be speaking spanish, translated it means “Where are my children?” -- source link
#reader translation#family separation#immigrant rights#spanish poetry#la llorona