Miriam de Uriarte Traducción: Andrea Alzati Iztaccihuatl

IZTACCIHUATL

They saw her from a distance freezing – a sleeping woman – a mirage among those Spaniards wandering in her shadow – all white she was – where the ice slides –a mirage of a floating island. alone where ice slides easily.

Dawn flush across the valley of flower markets. It is as though a death has come to pass –in the distance the volcano Iztaccihuatl appears far from the waters of Xochimilco Atolotls – dark days far from Iztaccihuatl far from the dawn flush across the valley of flowers – stalls – flower a valley –she above them – her dawn blush -- across the valley freezing alone where ice slides easily

Incest a cruel axe – cuts the cord of union -- of loving union – of loving –then to flight – even as in her shadow in the valley of sorrow – pain lingers leaving the dry lake where skyscrapers began to grow

Has an awakening – a dawn so profound ever been so destroyed? What surprises then – weeping years lost wandering on freeways? Dark days far from Iztaccihuatl from her dawn blush across the valley of flower markets – freezing

Her shadow of sorrows lingers all the while – what they saw