Saturday, September 23, 2017

The Campesino's Lament by A. S. Maulucci




Mother Earth! Madre tierra!

Your quaking has tumbled our stones,

Our roofs have come down on our heads,

Our lives are shattered,

We are buried beneath the adobe walls

Like the bones of our ancestors.

We call to you from underground now,

But you have stifled our screams.

We are now like the seeds we planted for this year’s harvest.

We damn you! We curse you,

You devil of a madre!

Ay! But it does no good.

You are still the mother we love.



Why do you punish us?

Why are you angry with us?

Have we sinned against you with our mauling tractors?

Have we ravaged you with our great diggers?

How else will you pour forth your abundance

Unless we open you up with the plow?

How else will you feed us?

Have we overpopulated you with our hungry children?

Have we overcrowded you with our teeming millions?



Madre tierra!

We love you but you are killing us,

You are slaughtering us like cattle.

We want you to feed our children,

We need you for our graves.

Do not punish us like God punished Sodom and Gommorah.

Our sins are small and we are weak.

Do not cut us down like the grass.

We cannot come back next year like the cactus.

Have mercy on us!

No matter how fiercely you maim us

We will treat you

With all the tenderness you deserve.


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