Translation: Mi nombre | Teen Ink

Translation: Mi nombre

August 23, 2013
By Afanen PLATINUM, Santa Rosa, California
Afanen PLATINUM, Santa Rosa, California
49 articles 0 photos 47 comments

Favorite Quote:
"But you see, Meg, just because we don't understand doesn't mean that the explanation doesn't exist."


- Madeleine L'Engle, A Wrinkle in Time


Me pusieron el nombre
de una mujer de los sueños de un hombre.
Mi nombre puede tener dos sílabas, o tres, o cuatro.
Tengo dos otros nombres, y los todos significan
“bendita.”

Pues, yo no necesito ser bendecida,
y yo puedo decidir la cantidad de aliento
que las personas dan a mí, y ciertamente
no estoy aquí para hacer algun hombre
se sienta mejor consigo mismo.
Cualquier bendición que tengo
me di a mí mismo, y no sé
lo que cualquiera quien me siguió encontró,
excepto que no era la visión beatífica.
Mi nombre tiene un aguijón,
y lo usaré si necesito.

Mi nombre se puede ser escupido
o arrastrado
o claramente enunciado,
pronunciado con las palabras de ronda en la lengua
o contra el techo de la boca.
Mi nombre es una cerca,
o un marcador de millas que demuestre
hasta qué punto en el interior usted ha venido.


Mi nombre no es algo para alguien seguir ciegamente,
o hacer poemas de,
o bendecir.
Hazlo por mí o no hacer nada.



-----
I was named after
the woman of a man’s dreams.
My name can have two syllables, or three, or four.
I have two other names, and all of them mean
“blessed.”

Well, I don't need to be blessed,
and I get to decide how much breath
people give to me, and I am certainly not
here to make some man
feel better about himself.
Any blessing I have I gave to myself, and I don't know
what anyone who ever followed me found,
except that it was not the beatific vision.
My name has a stinger,
and I will use it if I must.

My name can be spat
or drawled
or clearly enunciated,
pronounced with the words round on the tongue
or hissed against the roof of the mouth.

My name is a fence,
or a mile marker that shows
how far inside you have come.

My name is not something for anyone to follow blindly,
or make poems of,
or bless.
Do that for me or do nothing.


The author's comments:
An English translation of my original poem.

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This article has 1 comment.


Mckay ELITE said...
on Oct. 8 2013 at 5:23 pm
Mckay ELITE, Somewhere, Virginia
146 articles 0 photos 2230 comments

Favorite Quote:
"The people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do."
—Apple’s “Think Different” commercial, 1997
“Crazy people are considered mad by the rest of the society only because their intelligence isn't understood.”
― Weihui Zhou

Definitely well written, both the English and Spanish. I'm a huge fan of your Spanish translation for this poem. Keep writing in Spanish. Congrats on the Editors' Choice. Again, very well done.