How to Be a Good Savage and Other Poems

"In a fiercely personal yet authoritative voice, prolific contemporary poet Mikeas Sâanchez explores the worldview of the Zoque people of southern Mexico"--

Sommario

Introduction by Jake Skeets

Note on the Translations

Ore’yomo

Ore’yomo

Ore’yomo

Wejpäj’ki’uy

Nombrar las cosas

To Name Things

Mojk’jäyä

Mokaya

Mokaya

Tumjama maka mujsi’

Y sabrás un día

And One Day You Will Know

 

Te’ kojama wi’rupa jurä nitiyä ji’ nhtä manemä’

El alma retorna al grito del silencio

The Soul Returns to Silence’s Cry

 

Aisha’

Aisha

Aisha

 

Rama

Rama

Rama

 

Mumure’ nhtä’ yäjktampä

Todos somos cimarrones

We’re All Maroons

 

Nereyda’is myapasyi’äyu nhwyt New’York

Nereyda se soñó en New York

Nereyda Dreamed in New York

 

[¡Jä! te’ kakuy myojna’pyapä’is mij’ nhkojso]

[¡Ay! de la muerte que te cubre los pies]

[Ay! From the death that covers your feet]

 

[Maka’ mini’ te’ kakuy / tese’ maka ‘mpyi’are’ mij’ änhkuy’omo]

[Llegará la muerte / y te encontrará en tu cama]

[Death will arrive / and find you in your bed]

 

[Maka mini te’ kaku’y / te’ wiyunh’sepä]

[Llegará la muerte / la verdadera]

[Death will arrive / the true one]

 

[Wäkä nhtä’ jampä’ä te’ toya’]

[Que para olvidar el dolor]

[May just one prayer]

 

[Äkyaj’papä temäjk kätpamä te’ jama teserike te’ tzu’]

[Los que duermen más allá del día y la noche]

[Those who sleep beyond day and night]

 

[Mujspatzi nyitzäjk’pak teserike yajpak’ te’ jama]

[En el inicio y la culminación del día sé]

[At beginning and end of each day I know]

 

 [Tumä jama tumä pänis]

[Un día un hombre]

[One day a man]

 

Jesukristo’is ja’ nyiäjk’tyiäjya äj’ tzumama’is Kyonukskuy

Jesucristo no entendió jamás los ruegos de mi abuela

Jesus Never Understood My Grandmother’s Prayers

 

Wanhjampatzi yom’nhkomi nyiäyi’päis Soledad

Mi Virgen se llama soledad

My Virgin’s Named for Solitude

 

Nhtä’ nhtzamä ore’ sasyapyä tire’

Ser zoque es un privilegio

To Be Zoque Is a Privilege

 

Päjkinh’tzyoki’uy’ mokaya’pätkoroya

Recibimiento del hombre mokaya

Reception for a Mokaya Man

 

Päjkinh’tzyi’okyuy mokaya’yomo’koroya

Recibimiento de la mujer mokaya

Reception for a Mokaya Woman

 

Aj’ jara’is tzi’upä’

Mi padre me dio un regalo

My Father Gave Me a Gift

 

We’we’

Wewe

Wewe

 

 Tzoko’tzyame

Pensar con el corazón

Thinking with Our Hearts

 

Wäkä’ jana tyi’ujanämä’ nijp’pyajpak

Para que no llueva el día de tu entierro

So It Won’t Rain on Your Burial Day

 

Wenhti’

Ofrenda

Gift

 

Tumä une’ mapasyiäpya

Un niño sueña

A Child Dreams

 

Jujtzyi’e nhtä wäpä tzamapänh’ajä

Cómo ser un buen salvaje

How to Be a Good Savage

 

Te’ meke

El festín

Feast

 

Mapasyiäpyatzi yäjkpä’wakas

Soñando con un toro negro

Dreaming of a Black Bull

 

Pistinh

Ceiba

Ceiba

 

Mäja kupkuy’omo Saspalankis’yuneram jätyi’ampatzi

Los hijos de Saspalanki lloramos en la gran ciudad

Saspalanki’s Children Cry in the Big City

 

Sonerampäte

Somos Millones

We Are Millions

 

Nä’pyajpa, Mokayaram maka’ yajpä’ya’e

Dicen que los Mokayas nos extinguiremos

They Say the Mokayas Will Go Extinct

 

Jujtzyi’ere’

¿Cuánto vale?

What Is It Worth?

 

Tä’ mokaya’ramte

Somos mokayas

We Are Mokayas

 

Mokaya, kämanä’

Escucha, mokaya

Listen, Mokaya

 

Maka’ tä’ wyrurame nhtä’ ‘tunh’omo

Volveremos al camino

Returning to the Path

 

Notes on the Poems

Acknowledgments

Info autore

Mikeas Sánchez is the author of How to Be a Good Savage and Other Poems. She is one of the most important poets of the Indigenous Americas, working in Zoque, a language spoken in southern Mexico. She is the only woman to have ever published a book of poetry in that language. Her six volumes of poetry—including Mokaya / Mojk'Jäyä and Mumure' tä' yäjktambä / Todos somos cimarrones—are all bilingual Spanish-Zoque. Sánchez’s work has been translated into Bangla, Catalan, English, German, Italian, Maya, Mixe, and Portuguese. In Chiapas, Mexico, she was awarded first place in the “Y el Bolóm dice . . .” Prize for Fiction as well as the Pat O’tan Prize for Indigenous Poetry. Sánchez is a radio producer, translator, community health promoter, and defender of Zoque lands. She lives in Ajway, Chiapas.

Wendy Call is co-editor of Telling True Stories: A Nonfiction Writers’ Guide and Best Literary Translations, author of the award-winning No Word for Welcome, and translator of two collections of poetry by Mexican-Zapotec poet Irma Pineda: In the Belly of Night and Other Poems and Nostalgia Doesn’t Flow Away Like Riverwater. Her literary projects have been supported by Artist Trust, the Fulbright Commission, and the National Endowment for the Arts. Call serves on the faculty of the Rainier Writing Workshop MFA program and lives in Seattle, on Duwamish land, and in Oaxaca, Mexico, on Mixtec and Zapotec land.

Shook is a poet, translator, and editor whose work has spanned a wide range of languages and places. Their writing has appeared in Poetry, World Literature Today, the Guardian, and many other publications, as well as being translated into more than a dozen languages, including Isthmus Zapotec, Kurdish, and Uyghur. Since founding Phoneme Media in 2013, Shook has edited and published translations from over thirty-five languages. Today they direct Kashkul Books, a publishing project based in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, as well as the translation-focused imprint avión at Gato Negro Ediciones in Mexico City. They reside at Newt Beach in Northern California.

 

Riassunto

The latest in the Seedbank series, the debut in English of a groundbreaking Indigenous poet of the Americas.

In a fiercely personal yet authoritative voice, prolific contemporary poet Mikeas Sánchez explores the worldview of the Zoque people of southern Mexico. Her paced, steely lyrics fuse cosmology, lineage, feminism, and environmental activism into a singular body of work that stands for the self and the collective in the same instant. “I am woman and I celebrate every vein,” she writes, “where I guard my ancestors’ secrets / every Zoque man’s word in my mouth / every Zoque woman’s wisdom in my spit.”

How to Be a Good Savage and Other Poems examines the intersection of Zoque struggles against colonialism and empire, and those of North African immigrants and refugees. Sánchez encountered the latter in Barcelona as a revelation, “spreading their white blankets on the ground / as if they’ll soon return to sea / flying the sail of the promised land / the land that became a mirage.” Other works bring us just as close to similarly imperiled relatives, ancestors, gods, and archetypal Zoque men and women that Sánchez addresses with both deeply prophetic and childlike love.

Coming from the only woman to ever publish a book of poetry in Zoque and Spanish, this timely, powerful collection pairs the bilingual originals with an English translation for the first time. This book is for anyone interested in poetry as knowledge, proclaimed with both feet squarely set on ancient ground.

The How to Be a Good Savage and Other Poems audiobook read by Mikeas Sánchez, Wendy Call, and Shook is available everywhere you listen to audiobooks.

Prefazione

• Physical galley quantities available for the PGW sales force, major media, poetry media, translation media, environmental media, booksellers and librarians; digital galley available for download on Edelweiss
• Galley campaign to influential Spanish-speaking and Indigenous authors, writers, and reviewers  
• Major advertising campaign in Emergence Magazine
• Promotional partnership with CALIBA and SIBA with targeted advertising and promotions to California and Southern booksellers and readers
• Digital marketing through the publisher to communities of more than 50K readers and buyers, with special push to academic market for course adoption
• Digital marketing through the publisher to promote the Seedbank series
• Major events in Los Angeles and Seattle

Dettagli sul prodotto

• Autori: Mikeas Sánchez, Mikeas Snchez
• Con la collaborazione di: Wendy Call (Traduzione), Shook (Traduzione)
• Editore: Ingram Publishers Services
• Lingue: Inglese
• Formato: Tascabile
• Pubblicazione: 08.12.2023
• EAN: 9781639550203
• ISBN: 978-1-63955-020-3
• Pagine: 224
• Dimensioni: 165 mm x 215 mm x 15 mm
• Peso: 308 g
• Illustrazioni: Illustrationen, nicht spezifiziert
• Serie: Seedbank
• Categorie: Narrativa > Romanzi; Scienze umane, arte, musica > Scienze linguistiche e letterarie > Letteratura generale e comparata; POETRY / General, LITERARY CRITICISM / Poetry, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Indigenous Studies, Indigenous Peoples, Relating to indigenous peoples, Literary studies: poetry & poets, Anthologies: general, The Americas, Literary studies: poetry and poets, LITERARY COLLECTIONS / Indigenous Peoples in the Americas, LITERARY COLLECTIONS / Indigenous, LITERARY CRITICISM / Indigenous