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Holy Grail
by Maria Del Castillo Sucerquia, translated from the Spanish by Douglas Cole

April 20, 2021 Contributed By: Douglas Cole, Maria Del Castillo Sucerquia

Phoenix Bird

  1. Holy Grail

 

while I was sleeping

the bird of fire delighted

between its wings

dream blazed—burning

terrors and elegies

 

I blossomed into flaming

violet while my

name, in silent flight

within my soul,

            drank and sang

       until dawn

 

  1. Santo grial

 

mientras yo

dormía el pájaro

de fuego se divertía

entre sus alas mi

sueño ardía —quemó

los miedos, las elegías

 

florecí violeta en

llamas cuando mi

nombre, con silente vuelo

en mi raíz, hasta

el amanecer

               bebió y cantó.

 

Translated by Douglas Cole

The Poet: Maria Del Castillo Sucerquia


The Poet: 

MARIA DEL CASTILLO SUCERQUIA (Barranquilla, Colombia in 1997) is a bilingual poet (Spanish and English), short story writer, proofreader, mentor, oriental medic (Neijing, Spain), ancient Chinese language student and translator (from English, Italian, Portuguese, French, German, Greek, Arabic). Her poems have been published in national and international anthologies, journals, websites and magazines, and have been translated into Kannada, Bangla, Arabic, Greek, Italian and English. She has participated in national and international festivals, recitals and webinars (Filogicus, Libresta, María Mulata, Bharatha, Vision, Azahar, Atunis Poetry, El Heraldo, Muelle Caribe, Crisol, Uttor Kota, Sol y Luna, Sabdakhunja, The Poet, and other) She collaborates with translating and literary criticism in several literary magazines such as Altazor (Chile), Cardenal (Mexico), Cronopio (Missouri), Golem (Mexico), Vive Afro (Colombia), Palabrerías (Mexico), Raíz Invertida (Colombia) and other. Lacabramontes@outlook.com

The Translator: 

DOUGLAS COLE has published six collections of poetry, a novella, and The White Field, a novel. His work has appeared in several anthologies as well as The Chicago Quarterly Review, The Galway Review, Bitter Oleander, Louisiana Literature and Slipstream. He has been nominated twice for a Pushcart and Best of the Net and received the Leslie Hunt Memorial Prize in Poetry. He lives and teaches in Seattle. His website is https://douglastcole.com/.

Filed Under: Poetry Posted On: April 20, 2021

Further Reading

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i. The Old Woman on the Right She says that we’ve done a good thing that our daughter is lucky, and we’ll be blessed, and I want to say, Fuck you, you racist old bat. I want to say, Aren’t you afraid about the nigger music that will come from our house now? After all, […]

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If it wasn’t for our inborn optimism –
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