Álvaro Calfucoy Gutiérrez, translated by the Editors
Taiñ mapuzunguam fillke püle
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I walked away from the asphalt.
I wanted my shoes to be muddy, only to stain myself
to make myself impure to the whitest of eyes.
I fled the streets, the names
the blackened silk and insignia.
Ex civibus amumen llemay
Kintumen kangelu rakizuam
kangelu aukiñ
quia imperium vivit
et pulsat nostram linguam.
Welu kom tañi mongen choyüy
tüfachi wingka waria,
Santiago del Nuevo Extremo pingelu.
I knew I was incomplete between the lights of artifice
I knew I was alien in the tilled fields
and looking at my hands
my tongue
my face
I searched for some kind of silence in the crumbling metropolis.
But in their mouths the clamor never halts
the streets
the parks
the plazas
buildings
promenades
palaces
all imposed in ink
stamped shut
dictated in the classroom
calling out to oblivion.
Feymu pien
poyen L’aku,
pien, chacha Bautista yem,
pien, chacha Francisco yem
¿Feley ñi zungunon ti watrolechi waria mew?
Inche an’ay
küpa llitun ñi wirarüael
fillke
fillke
fillke püle.
1: For our right to speak Mapudungun everywhere.
2: I walk away from the cities / I wander in search of another form of thought / another sound / because the empire lives / and it beats against our tongue. / But my whole life sprouted / in this wingka city / in Santiago del Nuevo Extremo.
3: Tell me then / beloved grandfather/ tell me, chacha Bautista / tell me, chacha Francisco / is it okay that I do not speak in this broken city? // I want to / scream / every / every / everywhere
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