Flower that Drops Its Petals
I will not die from absence.
A hummingbird pinched the eye of my flower
and my heart mourns and shivers,
does not breathe.
My wings tremble like the long-billed curlew
when he foretells the sun and the rain.
I will not die from absence, I tell myself.
A melody bows down upon the throne of my sadness,
an ocean springs from my stone of origin.
I write in Zapotec to ignore the syntax of pain,
ask the sky and its fire
to give me back my happiness.
Paper butterfly that sustains me:
why did you turn your back upon the star
that knotted your navel?
House of My Dreams
I come down from the mountain
a pool of spring water looks back at me,
I see my grandmother's house
in the midst of the jungle.
I walk upon the foliage
a heavy door opens,
I can touch the peeling walls
what does my nose smell?
The candle releases its incense
in the breezeway.
I open the window, there is the jungle:
the house is cool,
I go to the kitchen
the kettles are my mother's womb.
Smells of soursop and ripening nance,
the sound of oil frying, fish smoke.
What do I feel?: I am content.
I descend the mountain, before me:
a white house with missing tiles
beds of thread stretch across their skies, in my garden no shortage of birds.
I caress a deer and her eyes are an oval sadness.
I'm wearing a plaid shirt
and two crabs pinch my little girl nipples,
I don't smile; I stand stiff as a post.
I am eight years old and my body is a house that remembers her house.
from The Black Flower and Other Zapotec Poems
Natalia Toledo
translated from the Isthmus Zapotec and Spanish by Natalia Toledo and Clare Sullivan
The Isthmus Zapotec originals were translated into Spanish by the author, Natalia Toledo. The Spanish versions were translated into English by Clare Sullivan.
Read the original in Isthmus Zapotec and Spanish
Listen to "House of My Dreams" read in the original Isthmus Zapotec by the author:
Natalia Toledo writes poetry in the Mexican indigenous language of Isthmus Zapotec. Spoken by more than 750,000 people today in Oaxaca State, this language family has been around for close to 3,000 years. Nevertheless, Toledo was the first woman to write and publish poetry in her native tongue. As such, she recounts the worldview of an indigenous people in her poems, for example by alluding to the practice of reading signs in the natural world. But given their geographical location on the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, the Zapotec have been people at a crossroads who survived through trade and commerce. Her poetry expresses how other languages and cultures have clashed with Zapotec customs to create a culture that is vibrantly present today. She succeeds through images both sharp and tender that resonate in her native tongue. Natalia translates her own poetry into Spanish. I have to listen to her original verses many times in order not to lose their music. Because my translation is based on her Spanish version, however, I must ground my work in her vivid imagery. This process has required me to visit the region, research names for local fruits and fauna, and most of all to ask Natalia many questions. The "flower that drops its petals," for instance, is a descriptive translation of a proper name in Zapotec.
Natalia Toledo (born in Juchitán, Mexico) was the first woman to write and publish in the indigenous language of Zapotec. She has published four volumes of poetry in bilingual form (Isthmus Zapotec and Spanish). Her poetry has been translated into English, French, German, Vietnamese, and Italian. In 2004 she received the Premio Nacional de Literatura Nezahualcoyotl for her book of poetry, Guie' yaase'/Olivo negro.
Clare Sullivan is a translator who teaches at the University of Louisville. Her translation of Litane by Alejandro Tarrab was published in 2017 by Cardboard House Press. Her other translations, including of indigenous Latin American poetry, have appeared in The Iowa Review, Modern Poetry in Translation, World Literature Today, and Latin American Literature Today. She received an NEA Translation Grant to translate The Black Flower and Other Zapotec Poems (Phoneme Media, 2015), which was short-listed for the Best Translated Book Award.
