100 Refutations: Day 60

Excerpt from Relaciones, or Anales

Here is the water and the hill,
here the altar of jade,
Amaquemecan—Chalco
in the place of renown
in the place that is example,
near the fields of reeds,
at the edge of the forest,
in the nearness of snow,
where they say Poyauhtlan,

[…]

in the garden of flowers,
in the garden of mists,
where lives the white quail,
where curls the snake,
near the dwelling of tigers,
in Tamoanchan,
in the place of our beginning,
where flowers rise…
Here they came to settle
the lords Chichimecas,
the priests,
the princes…

Bios

Chimalpahin

Chimalpahin, or Domingo Francisco de San Antón Muñón Chimalpahin Quauhtlehuanitzin (1579-1660), was born in Chalco, in what is now central Mexico. He is best known for writing the history of Mexico in both Nahuatl and Spanish. The better known of his surviving works is Relaciones, or Anales, which includes testimonies from indigenous people and descriptions of the events before and after the colony was established. He died in Mexico City.

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 ReviewChicago ReviewFourth GenreBrevityPoets & 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.