My Little Light

My Little light, my little boy my little light, my little boy my little flower go to sleep my little flower go to sleep your mama loves you your papa loves you play with the clouds and the little stars. My little light, my little boy my little light, my little boy my little flower go to sleep my little flower go to sleep my little light my little boy. tomorrow you will see the sunshine.

Walls of snow building the labyrinth of shame the word behind the snow insinuates run and hide like a hare in the grass.

The rain pours its cradle song luminous water needles weave the healing tune of the afflicted. In the womb of night

se sueña, se vive fuera del mundo y al alba, el pensamiento florece, con dolor, florece.

De humo es la memoria de piedra es la vergüenza los hijos del olvido rompen los espejos celestes y en las sombras mutilan la rama que los sostiene mientras dicen: “soy mestizo”.

Las ranas cantan La noche brilla de fertilidad cantan valientemente cantan su embrujo en mi espíritu encharcado cantan las ranas, resurgen renacen de lo imposible, lo desbaratan y como grandes maestras de lo eterno nos enseñan a cantar.

—Laura Edith Barrera Morales

one dreams one lives outside of the world and at dawn, thought flourishes, painfully flourishes.

Of smoke is the memory of stone is the shame the children of the forgotten break the celestial mirrors and in the shadows, they mutilate the branch that sustains them as they say “soy mestizo.”

The frogs sing the night glows with fertility they sing bravely they sing their spell in my waterlogged spirit. The frogs sing, emerge reborn from the impossible, they disrupt it and as great teachers of the eternal they teach us to sing.

English translation: Lee Gould Traducción español de Otomí: la autora