JSW Foundation collaboration with Embassy of Chile

SElECtEd PoEmS oF

GABRIELA MISTRALtranslated by

URSUlA K. lE GUIN

Vakils Feffer & Simons Pvt. Ltd.

Embassy of Chile Logo

BARCODE

i

Selected PoemS of

GABRIELA MISTRAL

translated by URSUlA K. le GUIN

ii

Selected PoemS of

GABRIELA MISTRAL

Vakils, Feffer & Simons Pvt. Ltd.Industry Manor, Appasaheb Marathe Marg, Prabhadevi, Mumbai 400 025, India.

translated by URSUlA K. le GUIN

iv v

Copyright ©

“The Franciscan Order in Chile authorizes the use of Gabriela Mistral’s work. The equivalent to the royalty fee is hand over to the Franciscan Order in Chile, on behalf of the children of Montegrande and Chile, according to Gabriela Mistral’s testamentary will.”

Published by Arun K. Mehta for Vakils Feffer & Simons Pvt. Ltd. Industry Manor, Appasaheb Marathe Marg, Prabhadevi, Mumbai 400 025, India.

Printed by Bimal A. Mehta at Vakil & Sons Pvt. Ltd. Industry Manor, Appasaheb Marathe Marg, Prabhadevi, Mumbai 400 025, India.

Phone : 91-22-2430 6780 / 2430 0609 Fax : 91-22-2422 5111Website : www.vakilspublications.com E-mail : info@vakilspublications.com

: facebook.com/vakilsbooks

Dedicated to the children of Jindal Vidya Mandir Schools

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Foreword

I am honoured to present you, especially our little children, with a select collection of wonderful poems by Gabriela Mistral. She was an extremely popular teacher in the Republic of Chile in South America and was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1945.

It has been a valuable experience collaborating with the Ambassador of Chile, H.E. Mr. Cristian Barros Melet and the Embassy of Chile to bring about this unique production. I would like to compliment the Gabriela Mistral Foundation for upholding the legacy of this great individual.

I am very proud that students of our Jindal Vidya Mandir Schools in Vasind, Maharashtra and Vijayanagar, Karnataka have illustrated the selected poems. Their wonderful interpretation of these poems in visual form has been a fascinating journey, one I am sure our students will cherish. Vakils have given this collection of poems the perfect creative treatment that further complements their emotive content.

I hope you will enjoy this beautiful and wonderful book.

With my best wishes,

Sangita Jindal

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Rocking ............................................... 3Dew ..................................................... 4Give me your Hand ............................... 7Fear ...................................................... 9Little Bud ........................................... 10Discovery ............................................13The Girl with the Crippled Hand ..........14Larks ...................................................17Fire .................................................... 18The Ones Not Dancing ........................21Little Star ............................................22Little Feet ............................................24The Bit of Straw .................................27Animals ..............................................29The Parrot ...........................................31The Peacock .......................................32Pine Woods .........................................35The Rat .............................................. 36Weaving the Round ........................... 38

1

2 3

RockingHoly ocean rocks its millionsof waves in the sun.Listening to the loving seasI rock my little one.

Wandering in the night the windrocks the wheat.Listening to the loving windsI rock my sweet.

The Father rocks his thousand worldssilent, mild.Feeling His hand in the darknessI rock my child.

4 5

Dew This was a rosedew-laden.This was my breastwith my baby.

She closes her petalsto hold it safe,turns from the wind,lest it slip away.

For it came down to herfrom immense heaven,and so she mustsuspend her breath.

Her good fortune makes herhold still, hold still:rose of all roses most fulfilled.

This was a rosedew-laden.This was my breastwith my baby.

6 7

Give me your HandGive me your hand and give me your love,give me your hand and dance with me.A single flower, and nothing more,a single flower is all we’ll be.

Keeping time in the dance together,singing the tune together with me,grass in the wind, and nothing more,grass in the wind is all we’ll be.

I’m called Hope and you’re called Rose:but losing our names we’ll both go free,a dance on the hills, and nothing more,a dance on the hills is all we’ll be.

8 9

FearI don’t want my daughter to get turned into swallow.She’d dive straight up to heavenand never come down to our mattress,She’d make a nest up in the eavesand I couldn’t comb her hair.I don’t want my daughter turned into a swallow.

I don’t want my daughter to get made into a princess.If she wears golden slippershow can she play in the fields?And when the night comesshe wouldn’t lie beside me.I don’t want my daughterturned into a princess.

And most of all I don’t want themto go and make her queen!They’d set her on a throneso high I couldn’t reach it,and when the night cameI couldn’t rock her.I don’t want my daughterto become a queen!

10 11

Little BudI had a little flower budhere, next to my heart.It was as white and tinyas a grain of rice.

From the light I hid it,when the sun was hot.I had a little flower budclose against my heart.

It kept growing and growing,longer than my shadow.It was tall as a tree,and its brow like the sun.

It kept growing and growingand filled my lap,and went off down the roadslike a singing stream…

I’ve lost it, so I’m singingto rock my sorrow:‘I had a little flower budclose against my heart.’

12 13

DiscoveryI came on this little boywhen I was in the fields;I found him sleepingin the standing wheat.

Or maybe I was comingthrough the vineyard,looking for the little clusters,and brushed against his cheek.

And that’s why I’m afraid he’ll disappear likefrost from the vine leavesif I stay asleep.

14 15

The Girl with the Crippled HandMaybe a clam snapped up my little fingerand maybe the clam fell in the sandand the sea swallowed up the sand.And then a whaler fished it from the seaand the whaler sailed to Gibraltar,and fishermen are singing on Gibraltar,“A wonder of the earth we’ve found in the sea,the wondrous little finger of a girl.If she’s missing it let her come seek it!”

People might give me a ship to go and get it,and give me a captain for the ship,and give me soldiers for the captain,and I’ll need a city for the soldiers,Marseilles, with towers and squares and ships,the finest city in the whole wide world,but not so fine for a little girlwhose little finger was stolen by the sea.And the whalers are singing shanties,and they’re waiting, waiting on Gibraltar.....

16 17

LarksThey were in the scattered wheat.As we came near, the whole flockflew, and the poplars stoodas if struck by a hawk.

Sparks in stubble when they rise,silver thrown up in air.They’re past before they pass,too quick for praise.

Eyes are too slow to seethe whole flock’s taken wing,and we shout out, “Larks!”at what’s up – lost – singing.

In the air they woundedthey’ve left us with a longing,a tremor, a wonderhalf of the body, half of the soul.

Larks, child – see,larks rise from the wheat!

18 19

FireSince night’s already on us,with its line that dims and blurs,let’s go home by the roadof the Angel and the herds.Now they light in housesthe Fire in the kindling-wood,Fire that could kill youbut only does you good.It leaps in birds of red and blue,it goes, yet stays and keeps you warm,where you go it goes with you.It’s in my heart, but does no harm,It’s in the song I sing to you.Love it wherever you find it!In the dark, in the cold, in death,follow worshipping behind it,blest by the Archangel’s breath.

20 21

The Ones Not DancingThe crippled girl says:how can I be a dancer?Do your dancing in your heart,we answer.

The stream says:I can’t sing if I’am dry.Do your singing in your heart,we reply.

The poor dead thistle says:My dance is at an end.We say: Let your heart flyon the wind.

God in Heaven says:How can I get down?We say: Descend in lightto dance us in our round.

All the valley’s dancingwhere the sunlight flashes.Whoever doesn’t join us,his heart is dust and ashes.

22 23

Little StarLittle star, fallenon my heart to shine:ah, such a miraclecan’t be mine.

I fell asleep one nightand woke with herfallen shiningin my braided hair.

I called my sisters,and they hurried to me:A light growing, trembling,in the sheets, do you see?

And I called to the unbelievers,from my dooryard,Look, she’s not a baby,feel her, she’s a star!

All my friends, excited,crowded into my house,some carry her for me,and some of them kiss.

Days and days nowthere’s been festivalaround the cradlewhere burns my star.This year no frostfalls on the gardens,the cattle don’t die,the vines are laden.

The women all bless meand my love replies:Ah, let her sleep,my little star-child!

Light pours from her body,light pours from her eyes,and I watch her and weep,for she’s mine, she’s mine!

24 25

Little FeetChildren’s little feet,blue with cold, how can you beseen and not protected,dear Lord!

Little feet bruisedby every stone,abused by the snow,the mud:

Blind eyes don’t seethat where you passyou leave a living flower of light.

That where you setyour bleeding solethe sweet herb growsmore sweet.

Since you walkthe straight streets,be heroic, as you arecomplete.

Children’s little feet,jewels of suffering,how can those who pass younot see!

26 27

The Bit of StrawThis one that was a waxen doll,but she wasn’t a waxen doll at all,but a bit of chaff where they thresh the grain.But she wasn’t really a bit of chaff,but the stiff flower that follows the sun.She wasn’t the flower, though, she wasa gleam of sun on the windowpane.She wasn’t gleam of sun at allbut a bit of straw that got into my eyes.

Come here and look how I lost it all,in this one big tear, my true festival!

28 29

AnimalsSmall beasts prowl and bleat,sniffing at your hands and feet.Another realm, another earthgave the animals their birth.Like children seeking home they seem,dark and passing in a dream.

In their cloudcurled manes and wools,in their polished shining shells,coppery or pied or flecked,they make the world a picturebook.Child of the Ark, may you hear their callAnd dance in the Round of the Animals!

30 31

The ParrotThe green and yellow parrot,the green and saffron parrotsays “Ugly” to me in its nasal voiceout of its Satanic beak.

I’m not ugly, for if I’m ugly,so is my mother, who’s like the sun,and the light she gazes at is ugly,the wind that bears her voice,the water that bears her body, ugly,and the world, and the One who made it.

The green and yellow parrot,the green and changing-color parrotcalls me “Ugly” because it’s hungry,and I bring it bread and wine myself,for I’m sick of looking at it,always perching, always changing color…

32 33

The PeacockWhat if the wind blew and bore away the clouds,and there was a peacock flying in the clouds,what if the peacock came to my handand my hand is going to wither,and this morning I gave my handto the king who came to be married:

O for the sky, O for the wind and the cloud,all gone with the king’s peacock!

34 35

Pine WoodsAs we’re going through the woodstrees pass before you now,and I stop and show you to them,but they’re too stiff to bow.

Night puts everything to bedbut the pines that stand upright,old, deep-scarred, slowly wellingholy resins in the night.

If they could they’d pick you upand carry you farther and farther,passing you from arm to arm,from father to father…

36 37

The RatA rat ran after a deer,deer ran after a jaguar,jaguars chased buffalo,and the buffalo chased the sea.

Catch the ones who chase and flee!Catch the rat, catch the deer,catch the buffalo and the sea!

Look, look at the rat in front,in its paws is a woollen thread,with that thread I sew my gown,in that gown I will be wed.

Climb up and run, breathless run,ceaseless chase across the plainafter the carriage, the flying veil,after the bride and bridal the train!

38 39

Weaving the RoundWhere shall we go to weave the round?Shall we go down to the ocean beach?The sea’ll dance in a thousand wavesto make us an orange-blossom wreath.

Shall we go where the hills come down?The mountains are going to answer,as if every stone in the worldstarted singing and dancing.

Even better, let’s go to the woods:voice will wreathe together with voice,songs of children, songs of birdsmeeting and kissing on the breeze!

Making the round, the endless round,we’ll go to the woods to twine the wreath,and weave it wherever the hills come downand along the beaches of all the seas.

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A.Niranjan (Std 7 B)

Adabala Srilatha (Std 9 C)

Akshata.S.S (Std 10 A)

Ashmita Chowdhary (Std 9 A)

Bhavana.T.G (Std 8 A)

Chandana.S.Dhongade (Std 10 B)

Debarsho Sannyasi (Std 7 B)

Dimple Atry (Std 10 C)

Gautam Gupta (Std 9 B)

Kiran Mai (Std 8 C)

Krishna Mandal (Std 8 B)

Meenakshi Patil (Std 10 A)

Neha Dabholkar (Std 10 A)

Nihal (Std 7 C)

Niti Shri Raul (Std 8 A)

P.Kushali (Std 7 C)

Illustrations by students of Jindal Vidya Mandir Schools

Pallavi.M.S (Std 7 D)

Priti Bhosle (Std 8 A)

Rahul Yadav (Std 8 B)

Santosh Vishwakarma (Std 8 B)

Sejal Patil (Std 10 B)

Shagun Bera (Std 7 A)

Shashikant Pradhan (Std 9 C)

Shivangi Jadon (Std 9 B)

Shyam Patil (Std 9 A)

Sona Singh (Std 9 C)

Sridevi.R.C (Std 7 D)

Sunil Jaiswar (Std 9 C)

Sushil.K.Gupta (Std 10 A)

U.S.Ramya (Std 8 A)

Vedatroyee Ghosh (Std 9 A)

Vedatroyee Ghosh (Std 9 A)

JSW Foundation collaboration with Embassy of Chile

SElECtEd PoEmS oF

GABRIELA MISTRALtranslated by

URSUlA K. lE GUIN

Vakils Feffer & Simons Pvt. Ltd.

Embassy of Chile Logo

BARCODE