For those of you in the LA area: the following. Translations are by yours
truly. Amazing what one can do with a good dictionary and a lot of chutzpa.
CULTURAL EXCHANGE BRINGS TWO TIJUANA POETS TO LOS ANGELES
Bajo el Mismo Sol (Under the Same Sun), an international cultural exchange
program between the cities of Los Angeles and Tijuana, will present "Poetas
por Pintores" ("Poets for Painters") with Elizabeth Cazessús and Eduardo
Arellano reading their works on Friday, August 18th, from 8 to 10 p.m. at
Espresso Mi Cultura, 5625 Hollywood Boulevard (corner of Gramercy) in
Hollywood, and on Saturday, August 19th., from 1 to 3 p.m. at the 15th
annual African Marketplace & Cultural Faire in Rancho Cienega Park, 5001
Rodeo Road in Los Angeles. Admission.s to both readings are free, but there
is a $3.00 entrance fee for African Marketplace.
Examples of their poetry, in Spanish and English, can be found below. The
poets will read in Spanish. Translations of most of the poems will also be
read.
Tijuana-born Elizabeth Cazessús, who has written poetry since 1972, will
read an excerpt from her new book *La Mujer de sal* (Woman of Salt).
Considered one of the leading poets in Baja California, she has one
numerous awards in Mexico.
Eduardo Arellano, who was born in Zacatecas, Zacatecas, has published three
collections of poetry: *Diásporo o pasión* (1985), *Desierto de la palabra*
(1994), and *La Tierra destinada* (1999). He has lived in Mexicali and
Tijuana since 1988 and is a member of the faculty of the School of the
Humanities of the Universidad Autónomo de Baja California.
For the next year Bajo el Mismo Sol will bring two poets monthly to
different venues in Los Angeles. Simultaneously, Los Angeles painters will
have their works exhinited in six different galleries in Tijuana. For the
following year the exchange will be reversed.
For further information call Luis Ituarte, (213)485-4474.
Elizabeth Cazessús
WOMAN OF SALT (excerpt)
I
Mother I voyage to the depths of the sea
to leave in your hands the cast of my face
coastlines where my rivers meld with yours
the lenses of my eyes
seeing me in your tides at last
Lend me your quetzal feather
for my skirt the waves of the sea
anklets of snailshells and bells
adorning my feet in exchange for this offering
May my steps on staircase and balcony
intone a song that the birds carry
to the great lords of light reaching
the ears of Neptune
before he awaken.
II
I strip off the clothes of abandonment
that the flames of Sodom illuminate
The salt of my tears will clothe me
a river of glow-worms and garlands.
For your sake the light from the mountains falls
before your turquoise dress
when in the morning the customary sun rises.
Eduardo Arellano
from THE LOVER'S DAWN
So as to clothe ourselves in leaves, so as to steal the fruit and prepare
ourselves
a banquet of delicious prohibitions, with toothy sweetness,
love, let us taste each other while we live.
This garden flowers despite weather,
carving out of our bodies
a view into each other's depths, each time further
into blood and lip where that which rebels,
that which breathes in us,
still hides, the blind well of this moment
when you know yourself mine,
and something tells us that we have exceeded
the second's compass.
Wait, don't return yet to your name, observe these vestiges,
the field that opens before exhausted bodies.
Astonished as you are, taste this seed
about to sprout for us, beyond us
in a paradise where nothing is marginal
and a wind without origin delivers us its breath.
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