100 Refutations: Day 24

Written by “A Few Pariahs,” various Quechuan poets
Translated from the Spanish by Lina M. Ferreira C.-V.

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April, 2018

Untitled excerpt from Quechuan Lilies

Little rainstorm, little rainstorm
********please, do not rain down on me,
that my shawl is short.

Hailstorm, hailstorm
********do not hail down on me,
that my shawl is small.

Diversion, diversion, divert.
********Even upon thorns I would walk,
Even stones I would break under bare foot.

Ay, ayayái, ayayái!
********Little shepherdess:
********going up the little hill
as the condor circles and circles.

Ay, ayayái, ayayái!
********Little shepherd
********climbing the little mountain
as the hawk flutters and flutters.

Ay, ayayái, ayayái!
********Shepherds
********Standing atop the courtyard wall,
as the fox sniffs and sniffs.

Let us go, yes or no:
Into the river,
to catch fish.

Let us go, yes or no:
to the shore
to stone some ducks.

Bios

“A Few Pariahs,” various Quechuan poets

**

Lina M. Ferreira C.-V.

Lina M. Ferreira C.-V. earned MFAs in creative nonfiction writing and literary translation from The University of Iowa. She is the author of Drown Sever Sing from Anomalous Press and Don’t Come Back from Mad River Books, as well as editor, with Sarah Viren, of the forthcoming anthology Essaying the Americas. Her fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and translation work has been featured in journals including Bellingham Review, Chicago Review, Fourth Genre, Brevity, Poets & Writers, and The Sunday Rumpus, among others. She won Best of the Net and Iron Horse Review’s Discovered Voices Award, has been nominated for two Pushcart Prizes, and is a Rona Jaffe fellow. She moved from Colombia to China to Columbus, Ohio to Richmond, Virginia, where she works as an assistant professor for Virginia Commonwealth University. Visit www.linawritesessays.com.

English translation copyright (c) Lina M. Ferreira C.-V., 2018.