Lazarus
To Jader Rivera Monje.
Now that I am so many things
at once
Now that I assume my former
lives
And throw them to the flesh
or the mud
so they become poems
or little leaves that face
The crisp air of Zaire
They call me Lazarus.
I am Lazarus
Son of Bethania
Brother of Martha and Mary
I have known death
The river of roses, gladioles,
violets, myrth and lilies
That i have journeyed,
navigated and breathed
The four days that lasted
That Odyssey through the
fascinating world of shadows.
I am Lazarus
I have seventy names
Music, wind, bird, ox and
rain
Are some of them
I believe in resurrection
In survival
In the warm breeze that go
far
Beyond these tribes
I have risen from the mud
nine times
And now
I am the dust that does not
turn to dust
My hands and feet
Arer still tied up with
funeral garbs
But it is also true
that under my body grow the
herbs
the worm, the centipede, the
fragrant calambrinas
The seagull that takes off
in a flight
looking for other air
currentes.
I am Lazarus
Inhabitant of Bethania
Friend of the synagogues
Of Canaan, Carfarnaum,
Nazareth, Galilee
and other distant lands
whose names you would not
understand
My face is covered with a
cloth
But every time I rise to
life
Every time a butterfly
reminds me that a I have
been born again
The cloth gives way
To other stars, other
lights,
New animal species, other
roads.
I am Lazrus
In this trip at the end of
life
I will seat on another rock
To spin the sacred cord
The piece of river
That sends me back to
another current
Where all the voices claim,
All the musicians sing,
All the rains say:
“Lazarus, arise!"
Winston Morales Chavarro
Translation: Luis Rafael
Gálvez
