Poeta: Jaime Huenún
Traducción por: Deeba Mehr
A Song of Laughter and Lament
What is it that makes you laugh?
What is it that makes you cry?
I laugh with the sky
soaring blue over the sea,
while the copihues*
begin to bloom.
I cry with the thunder,
when birds dare to venture
into the rain where
they will not survive!
What is it that makes you laugh?
What is it that makes you cry?
I laugh by the trees
and I laugh in the fields,
under the stars in the sky,
which dance unconcealed.
I cry when I see
the earth falling ill,
her forests and meadows
becoming landfill.
What is it that makes you laugh?
What is it that makes you cry?
*The Copihue is the national flower of Chile
“While the copihues begin to bloom” / “Cuando los copihues floreciendo están”
The Copihue, shown on the right, is the national flower of Chile, and the Pacific Dogwood is the provincial flower of British Columbia. I felt it was important to show these two significant flowers next to each other, since while the two look so different, they are both beautiful. They are both summer-blooming flowers, though since they are on opposite hemispheres, they bloom half a year apart from one another. The Pacific Dogwood is native to the southwest of British Columbia where many First Nations, the Musqueam included, traditionally used its branches for weaving things like baskets.
Photos by C. Seherin (Dogwood), and I. Vásquez (Copihue). Retrieved from Pixabay Royalty-Free Images and Wikimedia Commons respectively.Used within licensing permissions.
