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What Sparks Poetry is a serialized feature that explores experiences and ideas that spark the writing of new poems. In Ecopoetry Now, poets from Canada, Mexico, and the US engage in an ecopoetic conversation across borders. Each Monday's delivery brings you a poem from the author and an excerpt from their essay.
Irma Pineda
Translated from the Spanish by Wendy Call
You declared war on us
considered us scattered dust
a puny animal
dawn’s weak light
Now you know we are many
friends of the rocks and mountains
we know the rivers’ language
we speak with the seaside sand
Now you know we are not alone
thousands of eyes watch over us in the jungle
and see us dance with death
and see you cry amidst the trees
because you too know fear


La guerra nos declaraste

La guerra nos declaraste
creíste que éramos polvo esparcido
animal sin fuerzas
pequeña luz del alba
Ahora sabes que somos muchos
compañeros de las piedras y los montes
conocemos el lenguaje de los ríos
hablamos con la arena junto al mar
Ahora sabes que no estamos solos
miles de ojos nos observan desde la selva
y nos ven danzar junto a la muerte
y te ven llorar entre los árboles
porque tú también conoces el miedo


Bicaa lulu’ laadu

Bicaa lulu’ laadu
nalu’ yu dé reeche nga laadu
mani’ ma qui gapa stipa
biaanihuiini’ telayú
Yanna ma nannu’ staledu
xpinidu nga guié ne gui’xhi’
runibia’du ni riní’ ca guiigu’
rininedu yuxi nexhe’ guriá nisado’
Yanna ma nannu’ cadi stubidu nuudu
stale bezalú cundaachi’ ndaani’ gui’xhi’
cayuuyaca’ cuyaadu cue’ guendaguti
ne cayuuyaca’ lii cayuunalu’ lade ca yaga ca
ti lii laaca runibia’lu’ dxiibi

*Irma Pineda self-translated the original Zapotec to Spanish
from the journal POETRY
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Cover of the February 2022 issue of Poetry magazine in which the Zapotec, Spanish and English versions of the poem appear
What Sparks Poetry:
Irma Pineda (Juchitán de Zaragoza, Oaxaca) on Ecopoetry Now 

"In my mother-tongue, el didxazá (Zapotec), there are two words for referring to nature. One word is nagá, which makes reference to greenery, that which grows and reproduces, like plants, trees, flowers, maize: because there will be food, there will also be life. The other word, which we use more frequently, is guendanabani, which you translate as the blessing of life and which makes reference as much to the human life as to everything that surrounds us."
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