Two poems by María Teresa Ogliastri translated by Yvette Neisser Moreno and Patricia Bejarano Fisher, from South Pole/Polo Sur, forthcoming from Settlement House in fall 2011.

 Water That Burns

It was then that my innocence
began to crumble
and cold settled into the fire

I shared meals with boatmen
who only drank water that burns

I was always lagging behind
distracted in the distance
by the sadness of the flute

De la ardiente 

Eran tiempos en que mi inocencia

comenzó a quebrarse

y el frío hizo su acomodo en el fuego

compartí el alimento con los bogas

quienes sólo bebían agua de la ardiente

yo siempre estaba rezagado

distraído en la distancia

con la tristeza de la flauta

Gargoyle on a Branch

The fever rises
the cold drains me
and a celebration of birds
awakens me

ominous forces discover the camp

I must hide my head
gargoyle on a branch

I blend in and awake unharmed
betrayal turned me into leaf and liana

keeping still I learn from fear

Gárgola en rama

La fiebre sube

y el frío me desagua

mientras una celebración de pájaros

me despierta

lo salvaje ubica el campamento

debo guardar mi cabeza

gárgola en rama

me mimetizo y despierto ileso

la traición me hizo hoja y liana

en el acecho aprendo del miedo

Yvette Neisser Moreno is a poet and translator of Luis Alberto Ambroggio's Difficult Beauty: Selected Poems (Cross-Cultural Communications, 2009). A nominee for a Pushcart Prize and for the ALTA National Translation Award, she teaches at The George Washington University and The Writer's Center, in Bethesda, MD.

Patricia Bejarano Fisher has worked as a Spanish instructor, translator and language-learning materials developer. She taught college-level English in her native Colombia and Spanish at the University of Maryland, and has a Master's Degree in Linguistics.