The Translation Issue
Volume 16:3, Summer 2015
Girl on My Back
Prone to nightmares,
fearful of dark nights,
(I have to stay with her!)
the girl that I was rides on my shoulders.
Persistent companion,
how to get rid of her?
She believes that after climbing a mountain
she can reach the sky with her outstretched hand.
Sometimes she curls up
asleep in my throat
and her weight suffocates
and makes this big girl suffer.
When the path
that I have traveled halfway
takes me to the horizon of shadows,
hand in hand, we’ll play old circle games.
Without fear, the two of us together,
toward the blazing dawn
where an old woman is waiting
who at times appears in my mirror.
Niña a mi espalda
Propensa a pesadillas,
medrosa de las noches oscuras,
(¡tengo que acompañarla!)
la niña que yo era cabalga a mis espaldas.
Asidua compañera,
¿cómo desalojarla?
Cree que al subir un monte
puede alcanzarse el cielo con la mano alargada.
A veces se acurruca
dormida en mi garganta
y su peso que ahoga
hace sufrir a esta niña grande que llora.
Cuando el camino
que tengo andado a medias
me lleve al horizonte de sombras,
haremos, mano en mano, viejos juegos de ronda.
Sin terror, las dos juntas,
a la encendida aurora
donde espera una anciana
que ya a veces a mi espejo se asoma.
“Niña a Mi Espalda” by Egla Morales Blouin reprinted from the anthology Al Pie de la Casa Blanca: Poetas Hispanos de Washington, DC, ed. Luis Alberto Ambroggio and Carlos Parada Ayala. New York: Academia Norteamericana de la Lengua Española, 2010.
Egla Morales Blouin (1930-2010), from Puerto Rico, published two poetry books and one book of essays. Her poems have appeared in numerous publications. She translated works of authors such as Mary Oliver, Mario Benedetti, and Mercedes Sosa. She collaborated in and/or set up several theater productions in the US and overseas, among others, for Georgetown University and the GALA Hispanic Theatre in Washington, DC.
Deborah Sobeloff is a writer and teacher. She received her M.F.A. from Ohio State University and was awarded a Maryland State Arts Council Individual Artist Award in Poetry.