Enriqueta Arvelo Larriva

Born 1886 in Barinitas, a small town at the foot of the Andes; moved to Caracas in 1948; died 1962. Books of poems published: El Cristal Nervioso, 1930; Voz Aislada, 1939; Poemas de una Pena, 1941; Mandato del Canto, 1946; Poemas Perseverantes, 1960. Antología Poética, 1976.

Spanish Text

DESTINY

A somber impetus set my woods on fire.
Who left me in the ashes?

The wind met no one as it went.
Mute unsown echoes surfaced.

Birds with no nests cleft the sky.
The last dust dimmed the border.

Restless and compliant, I remained in my voice.

 

SUM OF THE LONELY VOICE

In the wide, scented air my voice has gone alone.
In vain and anxiously I searched.
All the voices had gone.

I made a hollow of my hands and flung my voice.
And went out to pick it up.  Myself.
What a desolate sorrow, choirs of voices,
not to have a voice companion!

In the blind and sunny landscape,
in the area with no voices,
over the boundless grass,
I have been present on paths that couldn't hear me.

 

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