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Live Encounters Poetry & Writing Special Australian Edition August 2023
Like a Rosy Prelude, poems by Juan Armando Rojas.
Translated from Spanish by Dr. Salwa Gouda.
Like a Rosy Prelude
The dunes rise
In the sunset
An eagle glides through the clouds,
In the distance,
The sun lights its majestic temple,
In the distance,
A lion defends his daily agony,
In the distance.
There is a cool wind
A hundred thousand tablets of clay,
A language only in the wind rose,
A fervent song rises,
In the distance.
This afternoon
Flying over the river
There is a necklace of braided dragonflies
That desires to illuminate everything.
Spawned upon the wind
You are the nymph of the sun
Today your wings have sprouted
In the twilight
My river will fly.
In the sunset
A dragonfly that perches on the river
Is waiting for the fragility of the wind.
In a language that springs from a fountain
Is praying and repeating his name,
He says it slowly
Almost silent
Over the horizon
In the anteroom of the night
Until sunrise
When the dawn smiles at him
Under the morning sun
Is repeating their ninety-nine names
On the irises of his thirty thousand eyes
He learns to read the scars of the desert.
That morning
Before taking flight
He is decorated,
His beauty influences the moon
The cadence that springs from its wings
Prolonged arpeggio
A wind leads to rapture
When the sun begins to repeat their names
Raise the flight
As soon as dawn breaks
You are a raging wind at noon
You jump like an eagle into the void
Like a hunting hawk in battle
You are a gust of crazy wind
The sun that warms me and gives life
That is why as soon as dawn breaks
Raise the flight.
You will walk on the wandering steppe
You will walk wrapped in rose petals
You will capsize in the lunar heart
When I sing in the desert of your shadow
On your lunar slopes, I will sit down to cry
Deep sigh, under a light
As soon as dawn breaks
Land on the sand of your skin
Raise the flight
As soon as dawn breaks
Raise the flight.
© Juan Armando Rojas
Juan Armando Rojas, Mexican-American transborder poet, has published eight poetry collections including Como luz de río / Like River Light (2019) and De caña de maíz y miel: 12 haikus de Ohio/On Cornstalks and Honey: 12 Ohio Haiku (Full/Crescent, 2018), translated to English by Jennifer Rathbun. His recorded musical-poetry journey, Aurora Boreal is available in most music streaming services. Rojas was the “Poet in Residence” at the University of Coimbra, Portugal (2010) and has participated in international poetry festivals, most recently in Iraq, Egypt and Colombia.
Translated from Arabic by Dr. Salwa Gouda.
Salwa Gouda is an Egyptian academic at The English Language and Literature Department in Ain-Shams University. She is a PhD holder in English literature and criticism. She received her education at Ain-Shams University and at California State University in San Bernardino. She has published many academic books including Lectures in English Poetry, Introduction to Modern Literary Criticism and others. She also contributed to the translation of The Arab Encyclopedia for Pioneers including poets and their poetry, philosophers, historians and men of letters.