Ripapa*

by José Alfredo Escobar Martínez

En el aire flota una sustancia

Que en el Istmo

Conocemos como ripapa

Da sustento a los pájaros

Y el que lo aspira le brotan alas.

A su solo nombre

Las muchachas casaderas se persignan

Ya que hace el corazon

*En zapoteco del Istmo: que vuela, se agita, late.

Ripapa*

by José Alfredo Escobar Martínez

A substance floats in the air

That in the isthmus

We know as ripapa.

It sustains birds

And whoever inhales it sprouts wings.

Its mere name makes

Single young women cross themselves

Since it even migrates

To the heart.

*In Isthmus Zapotec : that which flies, flaps, beats.

translated from Spanish by Wendy Call

more>>

José Alfredo Escobar Martínez is an indigenous Zapotec poet from southern Mexico’s Isthmus of Tehuantepec. Born and raised in the town of Espinal, Oaxaca, he is an elementary school educator who has served as director of his hometown’s Casa de Cultura (cultural center) and as Director of Culture for Espinal’s municipal government. His poetry has appeared in several anthologies, including Laguna Superior (Gubidxa Soo, Juchitán, Mexico, 2008).

Wendy Call is a writer, editor, translator and educator in Seattle. Her book No Word for Welcome, about the region of Mexico that Escobar Martínez calls home, won the 2011 Grub Street National Book Prize for Nonfiction. She is a faculty member at Pacific Lutheran University and a 2015 NEA Literature Translation Fellow.

Circumference

Poetry in Translation

Ripapa*

Ripapa*