Nostalgias Imperiales / Terceto Autóctono

Nostalgias Imperiales / Terceto Autóctono
Poems by César Vallejo (1892-1938)
Translation R. Fischman
Nostalgias Imperiales - I
En los paisajes de Mansiche labra
imperiales nostalgias el crepúsculo;
y lábrase la raza en mi palabra,
como estrella de sangre a flor de músculo.
Dusk carves imperial nostalgias
on the landscapes of Mansiche;
and race is carved by my words,
like a star of blood on the muscle.
El campanario dobla … No hay quien abra
la capilla … Diríase un opúsculo
bíblico que muriera en la palabra
de asiática emoción de este crepúsculo.
The bells toll ... There is no one who can open
the chapel ... As if a biblical opuscule
had died by the word
of this sunset’s Asiatic emotion.
Un poyo con tres potos es retablo
en que acaban de alzar labios en coro
la eucaristía de una chicha de oro.
A bench with three bums is an altarpiece
on which a choir of lips raises
the Eucharist of a golden chicha.*
Más allá, de los ranchos surge el viento
el humo oliendo a sueño y a establo,
como si se exhumara un firmamento.
Yonder, the wind surges from the ranches
the smoke smells of dream and stable,
as if the firmament were exhumed.
*
Alcoholic drink made with fermented maize.
Nostalgias Imperiales - II
La anciana pensativa, cual relieve
de un bloque pre-incaico, hila que hila;
en sus dedos de Mama el huso leve
la lana gris de su vejez trasquila.
The old pensive woman, a relief from
pre-Inca block, spins and spins;
in her Mama’s* fingers the light spindle
shears the wool of her old age.
Sus ojos de esclerótica de nieve
un ciego sol sin luz guarda y mutila ...!
Su boca está en desdén, y en calma aleve
su cansancio imperial talvez vigila.
A blind lightless sun watches and mutilates
her sclerotic snowy eyes!
Her mouth disdains, and perhaps calmly
watches over her imperial tiredness.
Hay ficus que meditan, melenudos
trovadores incaicos en derrota,
la rancia pena de esta cruz idiota,
There are fig trees that meditate, hairy
Inca troubadours in defeat,
about the stale sorrow of this idiotic cross,
en la hora en rubor que ya se escapa,
y que es lago que suelda espejos rudos
donde náufrago llora Manco-Cápac.
in this bashful hour that escapes,
that is a lake that solders rude mirrors
where a shipwrecked Manco-Cápac+ weeps
*
+
Quechua word meaning Matriarch.
Manco Cápac was the first Inca ruler.
Terceto Autóctono - I
Echa una cana al aire el indio triste.
Hacia el altar fulgente va el gentío.
El ojo del crepúsculo desiste
de ver quemado entero el caserío.
The gloomy Indian lets his her down.
The crowds advance towards the fulgent altar
The eye of dusk desists
from seeing the burning of the village.
La pastora de lana y llanque viste,
con pliegues de candor en su atavío;
y en su humildad de lana heroica y triste,
copo es su blanco corazón bravío.
The shepherdess dresses with wool and fabric,
with folds of innocence in her attire;
and in her humbleness of sad heroic wool,
her heart is a brave white flake
Entre músicas, fuegos de bengala,
solfea un acordeón! Algún tendero
da su reclame al viento: “Nadie iguala!”
In between musics, fireworks
an accordion sings! Some peddler
gives his tune to the wind: “Nobody matches!”
Las chispas al flotar lindas, graciosas,
son trigos de oro audaz que el chacarero
siembra en los cielos y las nebulosas.
The beautiful, graceful, floating sparks
are wheats of courageous gold that the peasant
sows in the skies and nebulae.
Nostalgias Imperiales – III
En el muro de pie, pienso en las leyes
que la dicha y la angustia van trocando:
ya en las viudas pupilas de los bueyes
se pudren sueños que no tienen cuándo.
La aldea, ante su paso, se reviste
de un rudo gris, en que un mugir de vaca
se aceite en sueño y emoción de huaca.
Like old curacas*, the oxen pace
on their way to Trujillo, meditating ...
And in the iron of the evening, they pretend to
be kings that pace weeping through dead
domains.
Standing near to the wall, I think about the laws
that keep changing grief and joy:
dreams that have no when
rot in the widowed pupils of the oxen.
Against their gait, the village dresses
in a rude grey, in which a cow’s moo oils itself
in dreams and emotions of huaca+
Y en el festín del cielo azul yodado
gime en el cáliz de la esquila triste
un viejo coraquenque desterrado.
And in the feast of iodised blue sky
an old exiled coraquenque
weeps in the challis of its sad loss(?).
Como viejos curacas van los bueyes
camino a Trujillo, meditando ...
Y al hierro de la tarde, fingen reyes
que por muertos dominios van llorando.
*
Quechua word meaning tribal chief.
Quechua word denoting a sacred mound.
#
Sacred bird: its feathers were used as symbols of royalty.
+
Terceto Autóctono – III
Madrugada. La chicha al fin revienta
en sollozos, lujurias, pugilatos;
entre olores de urea y de pimienta
traza un ebrio al andar mil garabatos.
Dawn. The chicha* finally bursts
in weeps, lusts, fistfights;
amongst smells of urea and pepper
a drunkard traces a thousand scribbles.
“Mañana que me vaya ...” se lamenta
un Romeo rural cantando a ratos.
Caldo madrugador hay ya de venta;
y brinca un ruido aperital de platos.
“Tomorrow when I’ll leave ...” laments
a rural Romeo singing from time to time.
An early-rising soup is for sale
and an appetizing noise of plates leaps to the
air.
Van tres mujeres ... silba un golfo ... Lejos
el río anda borracho y canta y llora
prehistorias de agua, tiempos viejos.
Three women walk ... a man whistles ... Far
away the river walks drunk, and sings and cries
prehistories of water, old times.
Y al sonar una caja de Tayanga,
como iniciando un huaino azul, remanga
sus pantorrillas de azafrán la Aurora.
To the sound of a caja+ from Tayanga
as if it were initiating a blue huaino#,
Dawn folds its saffron calves.
*
Alcoholic drink made with fermented maize.
Peruvian musical instrument in the shape of a wooden box with attached resonating strings.
#
Typical Andean dance.
+