{"id":508,"date":"2010-07-19T14:08:38","date_gmt":"2010-07-19T14:08:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mahmag.org\/nucleus-import\/?p=508"},"modified":"2010-07-19T14:08:38","modified_gmt":"2010-07-19T14:08:38","slug":"two-poems-from-humberto-akabal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mahmag.org\/archive-english\/two-poems-from-humberto-akabal\/","title":{"rendered":"two poems from Humberto Ak’abal"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

\nFrom time to time
\nI journey backwards
\nIt is my way of remembering.——————–
\nI Journey Backwards<\/b><\/p>\n

From time to time
\nI journey backwards
\nIt is my way of remembering.<\/p>\n

If I walked forward alone,
\nI would be able to tell you
\nWhat oblivion is like.<\/p>\n

———————-
\nStones<\/b><\/p>\n

It is not that stones are mute;
\nthey simply keep silent.
\n———————-
\nI Don\u2019t Know<\/b><\/p>\n

My village
\nsaw me leave in silence.
\nThe city with its racket
\ndidn\u2019t even take notice
\nof my arrival.
\nI stopped being a peasant
\nand I have become a laborer:
\nI don\u2019t know if I\u2019ve made progress
\nor regressed.<\/p>\n

—————————
\nAnd Nobody Sees Us<\/b><\/p>\n

The flame of our blood burns,
\ninextinguishable
\ndespite the wind of the centuries.
\nQuiet,
\nI sing out of breath,
\nmisery with soul,
\nsadness cornered.
\nOh, I want to cry out!
\nThe lands which they leave us
\nare the mountainsides,
\nthe slopes:
\nthe rainfalls wash them away little by little
\nand drag them down to the plains
\nwhich don\u2019t belong to us anymore.
\nHere we are
\nstanding at the road\u2019s edge
\nwith our gaze broken by a tear\u2026
\nAnd nobody sees us.<\/p>\n

\n* Translated from Spanish to English by Andres Alfaro<\/i><\/p>\n

Humberto Ak’abal was born in 1952 in Momostenango, Totonicap\u00e1n, Guatemala and is a K’iche’ Maya poet. His poetry has been published in French, English, Scots, German, and Italian, as well as in the original K’iche’ and Spanish. In 2004 he declined to receive the Guatemala National Prize in Literature because it is named for Miguel \u00c1ngel Asturias, whom Ak’ab’al accused of encouraging racism. He was the recipient of a 2006 Guggenheim fellowship. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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