A una lavandera de Santiago / To a Santiago Laundrywoman, by Oscar Hahn

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A una lavandera de Santiago

 

Mi prima que vivía de su artesa
se me murió de muerta repentina:
le partieron de un golpe la cabeza
con la culata de una carabina.
Desde el abismo de su cráneo abierto
suben gritos y cantos fraternales,
entran en cado vivo, en cado muerto,
y empiezan a temblar los generales.
La ropa sucia no se lava en casa
cuando la manchan sangres tan enormes
que van de lavatorio en lavatorio.
Un regimiento de manchados pasa.
Y no podrá limpiar sus uniformes
ni el mismo purgador del Purgatorio.  

—Oscar Hahn 

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To a Santiago laundrywoman

 

My cousin who lived by her washtub
passed away suddenly, her life stifled
they cracked her skull from one blow with a club:
The butt of a soldier's rifle.
From the abyss of her broken head
rise the screams and fraternal songs,
enter each living, each dead
causing the generals to tremble along.
Laundry too dirty to wash at home
so much blood will still remain
from washer to washer, it is submerged.
A stained regiment, passing, will roam.
Uniforms bearing enormous stains
not even the purgatory's purgator can purge. 

 

—Oscar Hahn
translated by María Isabel Silva Hurralde & William Gillespie

 

Los Poetas y el General: Voces de oposición en Chile bajo Augusto Pinochet 1973-1989 / The Poets and the General: Chile's Voices of Dissent under Augusto Pinochet 1973-1989 is a collection of poetry by Chilean poets living under Pinochet. The book was edited by Eva Wyman, and was published in 2002 by LOM in simultaneous translation in Spanish and English. 

LOM Ediciones, 2002. 492 p. Texto en español e ingles. Edited by Eva Goldschmidt Wyman. ISBN: 956-282-491-8.

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2002