Skip to main content
Outdated Browser

For the best experience using our website, we recommend upgrading your browser to a newer version or switching to a supported browser.

More Information

Poetry

Dreamhouse

By Auldárico Hernández
Translated from Yucatecan Maya by Earl Shorris & Sylvia Sasson Shorris
Auldárico Hernández pens a poem in Yucatecan Maya.

Child
        Little brother Jaguar
                  race
                  of the indomitable
                  mystical
                  spirit
your strength is of the earth
                  the sun
                  the water
                  the air
                  and the fire emerging from your breast
                  your eyes and your hands
The power of your soul
Comes from the stars
Where the legend dwells
From your first dreams
                  sleep
                  sleep
                  sleep with the flight of the herons
                  with the silence of the jungle
                  with the lullaby that the rivers give
                  lifting your dreams on the clouds
                  and from the very summits
                  look at your brothers and consider them
Child
        Little brother Jaguar
                  it is time that you awaken
                  the drums and tuncules1
                  call
                  come with the hummingbird
                  go through the towns
                  and you will find in every brother
                  a look of sadness
                  an ancestral
                  defeat submerged in sleeplessness

 
        Do not look down now
                  awaken…
                  awaken…
        unite with wind
        lift yourself with the eagles
        speak with other jaguars
        take the ax
                  the machete
        liberate your brothers
        with them
                  ask for
                  your Justice
                  my Justice
                  our Justice
 
Author’s Note: Respect the integrity of these paragraphs with your blood
Footnote:
1. Small drums
Originally published in México Indígena, México, noviembre 1990, numero 14. p.43
English

Child
        Little brother Jaguar
                  race
                  of the indomitable
                  mystical
                  spirit
your strength is of the earth
                  the sun
                  the water
                  the air
                  and the fire emerging from your breast
                  your eyes and your hands
The power of your soul
Comes from the stars
Where the legend dwells
From your first dreams
                  sleep
                  sleep
                  sleep with the flight of the herons
                  with the silence of the jungle
                  with the lullaby that the rivers give
                  lifting your dreams on the clouds
                  and from the very summits
                  look at your brothers and consider them
Child
        Little brother Jaguar
                  it is time that you awaken
                  the drums and tuncules1
                  call
                  come with the hummingbird
                  go through the towns
                  and you will find in every brother
                  a look of sadness
                  an ancestral
                  defeat submerged in sleeplessness

 
        Do not look down now
                  awaken…
                  awaken…
        unite with wind
        lift yourself with the eagles
        speak with other jaguars
        take the ax
                  the machete
        liberate your brothers
        with them
                  ask for
                  your Justice
                  my Justice
                  our Justice
 
Author’s Note: Respect the integrity of these paragraphs with your blood
Footnote:
1. Small drums
Originally published in México Indígena, México, noviembre 1990, numero 14. p.43

Read Next

Photo of a record shop