The ucluelet´s songs by Nos y Otros

The

UCLUELET´S SONGS ABDIEL ESPINOZA GONZÁLEZ

TRANSLATED FROM THE SPANISH BY

ALEJANDRA ORTIZ

The

UCLUELET´S SONGS ABDIEL ESPINOZA GONZÁLEZ

TRANSLATED FROM THE SPANISH BY

ALEJANDRA ORTIZ ALEJANDRA ORTIZ

Cantos de Ucluelet Abdiel Espinoza González, 2017

To Alejandra MarĂa Joy Andrew Stephen

Ucluelet "People of the safe harborâ&#x20AC;?

Lying above a delicate fringe of hope I sleep peacefully Indifferent to tumult She covers my weariness My outrage for the arid roads Filling my sight with stories Whispering damp songs for my thirst I am at peace in my bed Life finally comes to its rest

II Although glorious and haughty These all-powerful and unmovable mountains Understand time very well After being dressed with cold attire They bleed all their solid water Giving themselves and contributing to life Resurrecting old paths Impressive falls Their rivers are veins that will drown at the end of its base Where they collect their sap I am so small and selfish Compared to them

III The road winds the horizon Biting distance A snake of tarmac Contrasts with the scenery Surrounded with a green curtain made of thousands of live threads Forest mountain and lake Intertwined in this corner of the world The road invites us to remain Astonished at the unusual grandeur Our eyes cannot capture it She is still there Speaking without words Of all its stories And of all the humanity it has contemplated While she keeps silent Only what our sights may hear

IV We are on our way to where we have never been We do not know what to expect Dense fog hides the horizon It resists to us passing Our strength is similar to the river That hits the rock to open its course Beautiful and patiently polished rocks elevate their song And that fog kisses the mountains As a tender mother Dreams and rest flourish here Love

V In the middle of the road water falls unrehearsed It flows without guilt Where this artificial path hindered its course There is weeping and fear hidden in the woods After all It is utterly vulnerable It needs us to exist As a sample of legendary greatness

VI The lake is never calm By simple sight It hides more than what it shows It extends itself with satisfaction on its basin With his womb full of secrets We just stroke its crest

VII My curiosity got lost in the path Without knowing how to return She does not experience fear She carries seeds of the new creation She is full of images to come Like when our daughter will walk next to the lake With a bear and her offspring In peace

VIII The fire burns without asking our permission or forgiveness It sings its own warm song It consumes time Here we are to feed it meekly With our calm and our impatience

IX Wind over the rock Rock under the river River next to the woods Humidity in the air An empty sky The earth full of glory

X Walking among giants I see them holding the sky with their arms Facing doubtless the wind and the rain If only we inherited their perseverance For the turbulent times The ages of humanity To keep ourselves united In spite of the farewells

XI Let us wrap ourselves in a new song In the midst of centennial watchtowers Built to hold the sky While they simultaneously and abruptly And bodily descend to the womb of the earth They are the true foundations of the world

XII A journey against the wind In the confines of the earth We pretend not to fly without an anchor Over the pointed canopy Where the scandal of the waves Cannot reach We plow the sand with our steps Without the ability to return to our footprints And the world is implacable It imprints our bodies with time Hebel

XIII Grateful we gathered at the table to be served From the fruit of the earth and the work of hands From men and women In other parts of the world This is an anticipation and a reminder Of the banquet of abundance and joy Unfolded once and for all Generously open for those who hunger We hungry gather to eat the bread who descended from heaven

XIV We are strangers in these Woods Tired of waiting to hear once again The songs from native tongues We now Speak to these millennial logs With our modern language Son of the explorer and conquistador But they keep quiet Where are the communal fires? The dancing and the hunting The respect for the bear and admiration for the orca They are not here anymore They left Were expelled Who will tell us the story of this land? If the spirits of the ancestors were locked In national parks Where do the canoes dance? Asks the ocean On the memory of museums Of industrial cities Says the sand Tired of holding footprints From Columbia, The North Face and Timberland

XV I keep a prayer between the crags For you Its echo awakens with the waves of the morning and evening Among the steep walls Every day Until the ocean dries Take it with you with your belongings

XVI I will sing for us To us about us I will expand my words while dancing To the four cardinal points To not forget or be forgotten I will make us into songs For the night, the games So we can scare the nostalgia away Our songs have no end They resurrect from the ashes of our memories For ever Until we finish remembering

XVII Now we have returned To our urban forest And the memories are stamped in our skin With willingness to sprout Wherever the sun meets us In the middle of a path Our adventure was engraved In sand and grass But it will not come with us forever With the sum of our years Those days will be a drop in the ocean Of our agitated existence Bald eagles and millennial trees All the life we have contemplated Will be kept safe in a safe harbor