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Writer's pictureNew Semantics

Las Noches de Isla Negra (Isla Negra Nights) | by Isabella Gonzalez

Updated: Feb 2, 2019


Language: Spanish (spoken in Central America, South America, Spain)

Author's Background: Coming from a Chilean family on my dad's side, I've always been exposed to the Spanish language. Because I'm mixed race, I never felt like I truly belonged in the Hispanic community, so I often took time to expose myself to the culture and found myself in love with lyrical Spanish poetry.

 

Las Noches de Isla Negra

Pecas de la estrella,

venas construidas de constelaciones,

cabello hecho de olas oceánicas,

había una vez una chica

nacida de starlight.

Un viento crujiente rizado alrededor de sus brazos

como ella abandonaría sus tacones altos

caminar descalzo en Isla Negra, tarareando

una melodía nostálgica para la que no puedo recordar las palabras.

Con una sonrisa suave, ella me reduciría a descansar

y carga una estrella con uno de mis

numerosos deseos. Entonces, susurrando en

ese tono tierno de suya, compartir un secreto,

“Te quiero también.”

Nadie sabía nunca lo que estaba en su mente.

Su corazón puesto en el fondo de un cráter,

frío y solitario. Siempre había demasiado

muchos cuerpos, demasiado espacio para

empujar a través de poder sostener su mano todo el día.

Tal vez ella sea un sueño, un cuento para dormir

mi abuela me dijo para no tener miedo

de la oscuridad. Pero la aurora amatista pintada

en mi cuello cada noche de verano dice lo contrario.

 

English Translation:

Isla Negra Nights

Star freckles,

veins built from constellations,

hair made of ocean waves,

there once was a girl

born from starlight.

A crisp wind curls around her arms

as she abandons her high heels

to walk barefoot on Isla Negra, humming

a nostalgic melody I can’t recall the words to.

With a soft smile, she would ease me to rest

and burden a star with one of my

numerous wishes. Then, whispering in

that gentle tone of hers, share a secret,

“I love you too.”

No one ever knew what was on her mind.

Her heart laid at the bottom of a crater,

cold and lonesome. There were always too

many bodies, too much space to push through

to be able to hold her the whole day.

Maybe she was a dream, a bedtime story

my grandmother would tell to not be afraid

of the dark. But the amethyst aurora painted

onto my neck each summer night says otherwise.

 

Editor's Note: Isla Negra is a beautiful coastal town in Chile, once the abode of poet Pablo Neruda, who was the 1971 Nobel Prize Winner for Literature.

Gonzalez is a high school junior from Livingston, NJ.

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