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Paraguay

Various wooden letter blocks

Photo by Amador Loureiro on Unsplash

9 Writers to Read on International Mother Language Day

By Words Without Borders

We highlight 9 writers working in their heritage languages, from Galician and Cebuano to Guaraní and Kaaps.

Multimedia

Ñe’ ẽ: An Introduction to Contemporary Guaraní Poetry

A real work of Amerindian literature makes perceptible another way of ordering and being in the world.

My Fire

By Alba Eiragi Duarte

At light of dawn I rise and make fire, / and dry in nascent fire-gleam the space where dew once pearled.

Translated from Guaraní by Tracy K. Lewis & Alba Eiragi Duarte

MultimediaMultilingual

A hummingbird at sunset

Photo by Ramona Edwards on Unsplash

Our Father Is Tired

By Susy Delgado

a dark stillness / goes about sowing death.

Translated from Guaraní by Susan Smith Nash & Susy Delgado

Multilingual

Serpent

By Alberto Luna

I alone / plunge my roots / and outstretch my branches.

Translated from Guaraní by Susan Smith Nash & Susy Delgado

MultimediaMultilingual

Xirú

By Damián Cabrera

Silvio wanted to escape, race across the sown fields with his long rhea legs until he reached some place where no one could see him.

Translated from Portunhol Selvagem by Elisa Taber

MultimediaMultilingual

Other Lives, Other Worlds

By Susan Harris

The results of these confrontations range from triumphant to catastrophic as the boundaries between worlds dissolve.

In Hock

By José Pérez Reyes

“You probably won’t believe it, but the strangest thing that happened to me was actually in broad daylight.”

Translated from Spanish by Jethro Soutar