https://offcourse.org
ISSN 1556-4975
Published by Ricardo and Isabel Nirenberg since 1998
"Mother," a poem by Sonia Manzano translated into english by Alex Levitin
Mother
when you submerge my shadow
in fathomless waters
don’t release my heel
don’t let me fall
into that endlessness
in which immortals die
without dying
Give to my shadow
a bit of vulnerable flesh
do not twist fate don’t save
what can’t be saved
there are arrows that do not wait
t
he one that is my destiny
is already whistling through the air
MADRE
Madre
cuando sumerjas mi sombra
en aguas insondables
no sueltes mi talón
no permitas que caiga
en ese sin final
en el que mueren sin morir
los inmortales
Concédele a mi sombra
un poco de carne vulnerable
No tuerzas al destino
no salves lo insalvable
hay flechas que no esperan
la que me corresponde
ya viene silbando por los aires
Alexis Levitin has published fifty-two books of translations, including Clarice Lispector’s Soulstorm and Eugenio de Andrade’s Forbidden Words, both from New Directions. His two translations published this spring are Last Return to Eden and Other Poems by Ecuador's Sonia Manzano (Dialogos Books) and Spotlight on the Word by Brazil's Astrid Cabral (World Poetry Books). He received two NEA translation awards and held Fulbright positions in Portugal, Brazil, and Ecuador.
Sonia Manzano Vela is an Ecuadorian poet, novelist, short story writer, and pianist. She was born in Guayaquil on February 27, 1947. Her short story collection Flujo escarlata (1999) won the Joaquín Gallegos Lara National Fiction Prize. Her first novel, Y no abras la ventana todavía (1993) won the first prize in the “Biennial Ecuadorian Novel” contest. Her last novel, Solo de vino a piano lento (2013), was acclaimed by literary critic Antonio Sacoto as the best novel written by an Ecuadorian woman so far in the twenty-first century. (Biography: ecuadorianliterature.com)