"Far & Magic Christmas Eve" (By Juan Parra del Riego)(Edited by Dennis L. Siluk) In Spanish and English

Two Poems

(By Juan Parra del Riego)

Translated by Rosa de Peñaloza de Siluk & Edited by D. L. Siluk, Poet Laureate

Fragments

Far & Magic Christmas Eve

Lejos

(Spanish)

Con alas de oro, de plata y música
me fui a la vida.
Cabeza cana que nunca olvido
luna dormida en mi corazón.
…

Far
(English)
(Written to his mother in Lima, Peru)

With golden wings, of silver and music,
I went to life.
Gray hair I never forgot
sleeping moon in my heart.
…

▼

¡Noche Buena Mágica!

(Spanish)

Era en Lima, la áurea ciudad colonial…
Te acuerdas, oh, madre, de la Nochebuena
tan sentimental?
Yo aun miro la cena,
los hilos de plata que el árbol llovía.
Dios era en la casa
el buen compañero de aquella alegría.
…



Magic Christmas Eve!

(English)

It was in Lima, the golden colonial city…
Do you remember, oh, mother, of the Christmas Eve night
so sentimental?
I still look at the dinner,
the silver thread that rains from the tree.
God was in the house
the great sidekick of that happiness.
…

Note: Here are two poems, in fragment and stanza form (extracted from the book by Juan Parra del Riego ‘Prosa,’ 1943 (Biblioteca de Cultura Uruguaya, Montevideo). And like many of his poems Juan Parra focuses on deep dramatics, death, images, illusions and fantasy. His poems rip at ones insides, tender and spiritual they can be, with flexible rhythm. His intentions were to create a series of poems with this sort of flexible rhythm, mixed with dramatics and diversity, but he died before he could get to that summit. When he first started writing his poems, he gave public lectures, and readings on them.

It might be of interest to the reader, that even this great poet, like so many of us, Juan Parra del Riego had his heroes, people that inspired him, and influence him. The two he most admired were Chocano, and Walt Whitman, in that order. What I see here is that their poetry melted into his own qualities, thus he created his own voice (or style), yet it was perhaps down through them.



Manuel Parra del Riego & Articulo de Adolfo Garcia Salas
(Two Brothers) 1975 and 1949