Chioma Ebinama, Leopard Woman (Snatched), 2019.
Watercolor and sumi ink on handmade Indian cotton rag paper,
22 × 30 inches. Image courtesy of Catinca Tabacaru Gallery
TWO POEMS FROM BASKET OF BRAIDS
(CESTO DE TRENZAS)
NATALIA LITVINOVA
translated by Kelsi Vanada
[I am the region]
I am the region
my mother
knows best.
She lifts my arm,
smells my armpit,
knows I ran
through the rain
and where I hid.
But she doesn’t know
my nightmares.
***
[Soy la región]
Soy la región
que mi madre
mejor conoce.
Levanta mi brazo,
huele mi axila,
sabe que corrí
bajo la lluvia
y dónde me escondí.
Pero desconoce
mis pesadillas.
***
[She returns]
She returns
with a hare hanging
from her shoulder
and without a trace of blood
on her clothes.
Her gathered hair
shows off her nape,
pale and damp.
The eyes
of the animals
she brings
stalk me.
***
Vuelve
con una liebre colgando
del hombro
y sin rastros de sangre
en la ropa.
Su pelo recogido
muestra una nuca
albina y húmeda.
Los ojos
de los animales
que trae
me acechan.
***
Basket of Braids (Cesto De Trenzas) by Natalia Litvinova explores the Argentine-Belorussian poet's rural Slavic ancestry, presenting the ideas of historical memory across cultures, female relationships, labor, and the power of tradition and belief. Litvinova, born just months after Chernobyl, looks back at the impact of WWII on her grandparents' community. Basket of Braids is about the aftermath of a war that left a small community devastated and impacted its imagination and psyche for generations to come, while spurring solidarity among the women in the family.
Natalia Litvinova is an Argentine poet, translator, and editor of the press Editorial Llantén. Her books have been translated into multiple languages and published in France, Germany, and Spain, as well as in Argentina. She teaches writing classes in libraries and in the Argentine Psychoanalytic Center Foundation (Fundación Centro Psicoanalítico Argentino). She was born in Gomel, Belarus, and has lived in Buenos Aires since her family’s immigration there in 1996.
Kelsi Vanada is a poet and translator from Spanish and sometimes Swedish. Her translations include Sergio Espinosa's Into Muteness (Veliz Books, 2020) and Berta García Faet's The Eligible Age (Song Bridge Press, 2018), and she is the author of the poetry chapbook Rare Earth (Finishing Line Press, 2020). Kelsi is the Program Manager of the American Literary Translators Association (ALTA) in Tucson, Arizona.