The poetry of Vito Apushana is a composed of several intersections: between oral and written literatures, between Spanish and Wayuunaiki, between the Wayuu people and Colombian society at large. Here, we present his poetry in translation from the Spanish alongside the same poem in Wayuunaiki.
WAYUU (II)
We are silent joy
– the toiling of ants-
– the leaping of rabbits-
We are placid sadness
– the curlew’s gaze-
– the bat’s dream-
We are life, this way
– the child in the aged-
– the face of the found horizon-
WAYUU (II)
Waya wanee ko’uu müshii sümaa talataa
shi’ataain tü jeyuukoluirua
nuwatiairua atpanaa-
Waya wanee jimaa maatshii sümaa mojuu aa’in
shiirakaaya kaarai-
nü’lapüin püsichi.
Waya tü kataakaa o’u, müin yaa
tepichin sünain tü laülawaakaa-
nu’upunaa chi aitu’u antuushikai anain-
ROOTS
On the paths of our mothers’ settlement
we hear a voice of distant places
that only the tranquil heart understands . . .
we encounter a gaze
that we will only see in dream . . .
and we feel a presence, of countless ancestors,
that prevents us from straying from the stone and dust
of this our path.
APÜSHII NAMAIWAJANA
Waraitüshii waya shipialu’umüin tü weikaa
waapüin wanee anüikii wattaje’ewolu,
shia’alakalü ayaawatüin soo’u tia tü mejiwa’alaakalü aa’in..
weirakaanaka amüin,
wera’aleetka’ane’e lapulu’u…
Je wayaawataka süntapaain wattashaana salii wapüshi sümaiwajatü,
isakalü wachiki akajee wapütüin tü ipakaa je tü süpali’inkaa
wapünekaa tü.
© Vito Apushana. By arrangement with the author. Translation © 2017 by Lawrence Schimel. All rights reserved.
