Articles tagged "Villages"
My Book Party in Eupen
In September my new novel was published in the Netherlands. The book launch seems to have become an inevitable part of the publication of a new book, at least in the Netherlands. A publisher in the U.S.…...
A Foot Patrol in Oruzgan, Afghanistan
Recently I flew from Afghanistan to the Netherlands along with some Dutch troops going on R&R for two weeks. A day later, I traveled to Paris to promote a book. The difference could not have been bigger.…...
Free Aung San Suu Kyi!
As the feeding frenzy that is Frankfurt Book Fair gets into full swing, a more mindful energy is fuelling the monks leading the people power revolution against the Military Junta in Burma. Last Saturday,…...
The Silent Steppe by Mukhamet Shayakhmetov
The Silent Steppe: The Story of a Kazakh Nomad under Stalin is a vivid, personal story of courage and hope in the face of persecution and terror. It breathes new life into a neglected chapter of European…...
Two Poems
For the English translations, please click here. Sméara Dubha Más buan mo chuimhne, adeir sí, bliain tar éis filleadh ón iasacht, níl na sméara chomh blasta…...
Three Poems
For the English translations, please click here. Gled Stanes watching the riding to open Scotland's parliament ceased 25 March 1707 resurrected 1 July 1999 thur is nae stane whaur the gled soars, nae…...
Three Poems
For the English translations, please click here. Criffel tae Merrick In this poem, two of the region's hills speak to each other. When a vehicle was needed for telling the story of Foot and Mouth,…...
Stick Out Your Tongue by Ma Jian
When Stick Out Your Tongue was first published in China in 1987, one commentator denounced it as a "vulgar, obscene book that defames the image of our Tibetan compatriots," and Ma Jian's works were…...
The Noodle Maker by Ma Jian
The pace of change in China over the last fifteen years has been extraordinarily fast; the pace at which its literature reaches us in translation shamefully slow. Chinese dissident writer Ma Jian is already…...
The Paths
Note: This poem was originally written in Mazateco. All paths arrive at the only road that exists. In the darkness only mystery is transparent. No one answers, silence too is a way to scream, and I go…...
School
Note: This poem was originally written in Yucatecan Maya. And the ants that sing, laugh, dance and play in circles, began to cry. She was born a woman, one on whom they threw boiling water when she appeared…...
Six Variations on Love
Note: These poems were originally written in Zapoteco. I Love comes heavy like a weight one cannot long carry without cursing. II Love is a feather in the air. Although it is also the sun. It rises and…...
The Owl
Note: This poem was originally written in Yucatecan Maya. The owl is here. He perches on the wall. And meditates. Whose death does he announce if no one lives in this village? The fossils of the people…...
Chants
Note: This poem was originally written in Mazateco. I Four hundred zontles in the distance. Four hundred leagues toward infinity, light, darkness, shapes. The voice of the wise man reaches far, the singer,…...
The Zapotec Language
Note: This poem was originally written in Zapoteco. They say that the ancient Zapotecs came down from the clouds. The center of the sky was their home. Very old men, very old women and a great number of…...
The Vampire Bats
The vampire bats and I
were waiting for the coming
of the night
to play with the stars
on the patio of the moon.
For the next poem in this sequence, click here.
Laziness
Note: This piece was originally written in Purépecha. There once was a man who was very poor, but also indolent. He tried hard to survive, by cutting firewood in the countryside and by selling it,…...
The One Who Went to Learn to Lie
Note: This poem was originally written in Zapoteco. There was someone in the old days, they say, who wanted to learn to lie. That's what he told his father, who answered, "I will send you to the professor…...
My Encounter with Xtabay
Note: This piece was originally written in Yucatecan Maya. It comes from a very small publication in a part of the Yucatán peninsula still very close to the area dominated by groups that remain…...
La Pesicola
"As you see, that was how our Creator lived, He who created everything and He who created man. He never walked like men. While he lived on earth, He always kept himself holy. He never sinned despite the…...
Who Are We? What Is Our Name?
Note: This poem was originally written in Zapoteco. To speak, to say yes to the night; To say yes to the darkness. With whom to speak, what to say if there is no one in this house and so alone, I hear…...
Escape From Death
Note: This piece was originally written in Purépecha. Don Nicolas used to get up early every day to the sound of the birds singing. Although the cold bothered his eyes, he quickly got dressed, and…...
Juan and Xtabay
Note: This piece was originally written in Yucatecan Maya. The author, Miguel May, is a personal friend. He lives in Mérida, Yucatán. His family still lives in a small town not far from the…...
The Story of Naxá
Note: This piece was originally written in Mazateco. Naxá, the daughter of Ts'uí and Sa, was deeply in love with a young campesino named Xungá, who lived in one of the most humble…...
Origins of the Indians in the New World
Note: This poem was originally written in Zapoteco. It was first published in Valencia, Spain, in 1607. Fray Gregorio had heard the story from Zapotecs. The work is a fragment. The name 1-deer, referring…...
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