Translation Tuesday: “Return” by Cristalina Parra

my mother’s eyes in the morning and my father / ringing the doorbell, atop his bike, without shoes...

This Translation Tuesday, we bring you poetry from Chilean poeta Cristalina Parra’s debut collection Tambaleos. Translated from the Spanish by Julián David Bañuelos, “Return” is a tidal wave of nostalgia–overwhelming and sweet. 

Return

while swapping my papers, my mountains for the

desert gulf, i think about the reflections of clouds

cloaking the Santiago Mountain or the sun

rise measuring the length of your face, slowly

cracks the day, there, the winds cross

the valley, the leaves sing and the clouds dance, I

hear the music you sent and the music we listened

to while running from the pigs, i think of all

the shellfish in this cold ocean and how the squids,

before death, try for the shore, i see,

my mother’s eyes in the morning and my father ringing

the doorbell, atop his bike, without shoes, his olive

skin, i think about the pup attempting their first

steps and the whiskey i threw back with my cousin

while playing Charlie Garcia’s keyboard and

chatting about the void we both understood, I think of the sunrise

for the first time in three years.

Translated from the Spanish by Julián David Bañuelos

Cristalina Parra was born in Santiago, Chile in 2000. Tambaleos is their first collection.

Julián David Bañuelos is a Chicano poet and translator from Lubbock, Tx. Read more on his website: www.juliandavidbanuelos.com

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