Cuzco Eats is pleased to feature a poem by the poet Kildem Soto who has roots in his native Peru as well as in the United States where he mostly resides. Soto’s work is passionate and rich. In this poem he returns to his homeland on the eastern slopes of Peru’s Andes. He uses a language similar to many bilingual poets that draws on the resources of both Spanish and English to make his poem work. As a result, we have supplied a glossary below the English poem since Soto’s Spanish version does not rely on English. Though writing about Peru, he creates the sensitivity of an American who lives, eats, and breathes in Spanish and English when in the US, in a language that the writer Ilan Stavans has described as a new tongue.
to my andean season
there’s a path from the sea to the mountains
in a land that ripens to jungle
where dance exerts in maneuvers, flirting and hovering
its appetite is wrapped in corn husks, warm, fermented to the rise of the jora
in a bowl awaits my incan-catholic quechua-castillian afro-rhythm chifa-flavored people, a hot caldo to a radiant sun
streets to dirt roads of the campo, where great feasts are cooked while buried, the pachamanca is dark in its spices
my cousins and I watched the elders mysteriously unearth the cooked meal
as if the mist had come up through the ground dragging its candor
when the band begins to huayno, stomping feet and bopping braids
put on their masks, sounding their matracas
because all along the procession of our black christ
a criolle cajon’s redeeming low hymns praise the colonial streets, enveloping the land in adobe homes as far as where the shamans live, up on their risen
shacks
when you gallop on the road of cinnamon quills
with outfits of beige and white
the crowd will applaud and the children will run
some get scared and some run along
if you reach its height, they are castles surrounding each other
their veil is an unmovable parade that transcends any flag or nation
it is that they are bound
that they are wealth
the columns that silhouette our sun
Glossary:
Cajon: A wooden box used as a percussion instrument in creole Peruvian music.
Campo: Rural area.
Caldo: broth or thin soup
Chifa : Peruvian Chinese food.
Huayno : Indigenous Peruvian music in a rocking 2/4 beat.
Jora : Quechua for corn
Matracas: A ratchet used as a percussion instrument.
Pachamanca: A food baked in stone lined pits common in the Peruvian Andes.
estaciones andinas
por Kildem Soto
hay un camino que guía desde el mar al monte
hacia una tierra que al hacerse madura se vuelve selvática
donde el baile es una hazaña coloreada de un coqueteo volador
su comida esta envuelta en la cáscara del choclo, tibia, y en la chicha fermentada crecida en jora
en el tazón esta mi gente incaitolica-quechuacastilia-afrodansante sabor a chifa, un caldo caliente y un sol radiante
de las calles hacia el campo, donde la comida se prepara enterrada, la pachamanca sale oscura con su aderezo
mis primos y yo observábamos el misterioso desenterrar de la comida como si la tiniebla hubiera surgido del suelo, arrastrando su candor
cuando la banda toca huayno, el zapateo y las trenzas se ponen sus mascaras, sonando las matracas
porque acompañando la procesión de nuestro cristo negro, esta el cajón criollo reivindicándonos con himnos dando alabanzas a las calles coloniales,
desenvolviéndose sobre la tierra, en las casas de adobe, llegando hasta la vivienda del chamán, arriba en su choza
cuando te encuentres al galope sobre los clavos de canela
vestido de blanco y beige
la multitud aplaudirá, los niños correrán, algunos se asustan y otros corren siguiendo
si alcanzas su altura, son castillos rodeándose
su velo es un desfile inmóvil que transciende toda bandera o nación
es porque están unidas
que ellas son de gran valor
las columnas que siluetean nuestro sol
