"Transversals," a Poem in Spanish by Irela Casañas Hijuelos, Translated by Jabez "Bill" Churchill and John Johnson
Transversals
They did not learn the trade from their parents
bronze disease destroyed the cannons
the train line touched the horizon.
When cold weather brought hunger to the coastal town
they found textures in the sea skins.
They copied them on rag paper
went out to sell them and had no luck.
Animals of constant temperature
came back to their space
they did not take the train
they did not take care of the earth
they did not cross the sea.
Los transversales
No aprendieron el oficio de sus padres
la enfermedad del bronce destruyó los cañones
la línea de los trenes tocó los horizontes.
Cuando el tiempo de frío trajo el hambre al pueblo de la costa
encontraron texturas en las pieles del mar.
Sobre papel de hilo las copiaron
salieron a venderlas y no tuvieron suerte.
Animales de temperatura constante
volvieron a su espacio
no tomaron el tren
no cuidaron la tierra
no cruzaron el mar.
Irela Casañas Hijuelos: Irela Casañas Hijuelos, born in Santiago de Cuba, graduated in Sociology from the Universidad de Oriente. In 2011 she received a Master's in History and Culture in Cuba from the University of Holguín "Oscar Lucero Moya," and later graduated from the narrative techniques workshop convened by the "Onelio Jorge Cardoso" Literary Training Center. Her collection of poems, Manual del triunfo, was published in 2006. Ediciones La Luz published her essay, Testimonio del margen, in 2011, and her poetry collection, La enfermedad del bronce, in 2015. Her critical essay, Sociología y literatura: dos caminos para conocer la irreverencia, was published by Black Diamond Editions in 2013. Irela is a member of la Asociación Hermanos Saíz, a non-governmental association of young Cuban artists and writers.
Jabez "Bill" Churchill: Jabez "Bill" Churchill lives in Ukiah, California, where he was the city's first bilingual Poet Laureate. He is a modern language instructor at Woodland Community College in Clearlake and teaches poetry at Mendocino County Juvenile Hall through California Poets in the Schools. He began submitting poetry for publication in 1979 and became a member of the Ina Coolbrith Poetry Circle in Berkeley, California. He has toured with other poets in Spain (1999) and Cuba (2000) and has been a featured reader throughout the San Francisco Bay Area, in Los Angeles and Vancouver, B.C. He continues to write and perform in English and Spanish.
John Johnson: John Johnson's poems have appeared in many print and online journals. He is co-translator, with Terry Ehret and Nancy J. Morales, of Plagios/Plagiarisms, the poetry of Ulalume González de León, winner of the 2021 Northern California Book Award for poetry in translation.
