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.
Comments