El fin de lo infame
Ya somos la inconsciencia que sufrirán los niños.
El luto engendro del despojo es ahora
raíz de la sed que no debemos y bebimos.
Ya será aquella sangre marea de las venas
del pasado, y la diástole quien clame
una última zamba a los latidos.
El polvo, la empedernida metralla y la barbarie,
las velas del milagro, y lo demás.
Después pasó el tiempo, mucho tiempo:
casi lo que tarda la afonía en pronunciarse
tras un minuto de silencio.
Hasta hoy, el hito que anuncie el fin de lo infame
no ha llegado ni la resurrección de los muertos
ni la concordia plena entre los vivos.
Pero cuán grandiosa es la bondad humana,
capaz de perdonar incluso a aquel
que detonó una guerra o presionó el gatillo.
The End of the Infamous
We are already the unconsciousness our children will suffer.
the mourning offspring of spoils is now
origin of thirst we don’t trust and drink.
That blood will be tide of the veins
of the past, and the diastole that cries out
to the beats for one last zamba.
The dust, hardened shrapnel and brutality,
prayer candles, and the rest.
Then time passed, a long time:
almost as long as it takes for aphonia to speak
after a minute of silence.
Until now, the landmark announcing the end of the infamous
hasn’t arrived nor the resurrection of the dead
nor complete harmony among the living.
But how great is human kindness,
able to forgive even the one
who detonated a war or pulled the trigger.
Translated by Jennifer Rathbun
Jennifer Rathbun, poet and translator, is a Professor of Spanish and Chair of the Department of Modern Languages and Classics and Interim Chair of the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies at Ball State University in Indiana. She received her PhD at the University of Arizona specializing in Contemporary Latin American Literature. Rathbun is the translator of numerous poetry books by Hispanic authors such as Alberto Blanco and Minerva Margarita Villarreal, editor of two anthologies of poetry and author of the poetry collection El libro de traiciones / The Book of Betrayals (2021). Rathbun was awarded the 2021 Ambroggio Prize by the Academy of American Poets for her translation of Cardinal in My Window With a Mask on its Beak by Colombian author Carlos Aguasaco. She is a member of the American Literary Translators Association (ALTA) and is Associate Editor of Ashland Poetry Press. Rathbun translated Indran Amirthanayagam's Blue Window (Dialogos Books, 2021)
Mónica Zepeda (San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Chiapas, México, 1987). Licenciada en Literatura y Creación Literaria por Casa Lamm. Meta-NLP Master Practitioner por The International Society of Neuro-Semantics. Es autora de Si miento sobre el abismo(2014) y Las arrugas de mi infancia (Coneculta Chiapas, 2020). Su obra ha sido incluida en varias antologías como Universo Poético de Chiapas: itinerario del siglo XX (Coneculta Chiapas, 2017); Poetas en el Cosmovitral (H. Ayuntamiento de Toluca, 2018); La piedra del fuego, Antología de poetas chiapanecos (Editorial Cultura, Guatemala, 2019); Antología Multilingüe (Artepoética Press, 2022). Ha participado en festivales de poesía nacionales e internacionales como Jornadas Pellicerianas 2022 y The Americas Poetry Festival of New York 2022. Parte de su obra poética ha sido traducida al polaco y al inglés. Poemas suyos también han sido publicados en reconocidos medios impresos y electrónicos de México, España, Honduras, Guatemala, Perú, Bolivia, Chile y Estados Unidos. Obtuvo el tercer lugar en el VI Premio Literario Internacional “Letras de Iberoamérica 2022” en la categoría de cuento corto con el texto Acerca de tiempos remotos. Mónica Zepeda (San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Chiapas, Mexico, 1987). Bachelor’s degree in Literature and Literary Creation from Casa Lamm. Meta-NLP Master Practitioner from The International Society of Neuro-Semantics. She is the author of If I lie about the abyss (2014) and The wrinkles of my childhood (Coneculta Chiapas, 2020). Her work has been included in several anthologies as The Poetic Universe of Chiapas: itinerary of the 20th century (Coneculta Chiapas, 2017); Poets in the Cosmovitral (H. Ayuntamiento de Toluca, 2018); The stone of fire, Anthology of Chiapas poets (Editorial Cultura, Guatemala, 2019); Multilingual Anthology (Artepoética Press, 2022). She has participated in national and international poetry festivals as Jornadas Pellicerianas 2022 and The Americas Poetry Festival of New York 2022. Part of her poetic work has been translated into Polish and English. Her poems have also been published in recognized print and electronic media in Mexico, Spain, Honduras, Guatemala, Peru, Bolivia, Chile and the United States. She won third place in the VI International Literary Award "Letras de Iberoamérica 2022" in the short story category with the text About ancient times.