from the collection Historia de la leche
My father begot me without a sound
He raised me
without new words
Way down
in the depths of his skeleton
my ages grow
As do the verbs
he fishes out
and tends in the soil of my ears:
“Give voice to ancient words, princess”
His blood speaks
in this repeating cadence
I practice it on vertebrae and teeth
on breasts
and the moaning of my knees as they bend
This is the language
of my birth
The story I go to on my own
inventing it
from the center of his belly
de Historia de la leche
Mi padre me engendró sin ruido
Me crió
sin palabras nuevas
Muy adentro
al fondo de su esqueleto
crecen mis edades
Crecen los verbos
que él pesca
y cuida en la tierra de mis oídos:
“Pronuncia palabras viejas, princesa”
Es un ritmo repetitivo
este habla de su sangre
Lo practico con las vértebras y los dientes
con los senos
y el llanto de mis rodillas al doblarse
Este es el lenguaje
de mi nacimiento
La historia a la que voy sola
e invento
desde el centro de su vientre
—
Mónica Ojeda (Ecuador-Spain) was in Granta’s Best of Young Spanish-Language Novelists 2021. In Spain, she has published two novels and a poetry collection with Candaya Editores, and a short story collection with Páginas de Espuma. Sarah Booker’s translation of Mandíbula (Jawbone, Coffee House Press) was short listed for the 2022 National Book Award for Translated Literature.
Kymm Coveney (Boston-Barcelona) is putting the finishing touches on her translation of Historia de la leche by Mónica Ojeda (Candaya Editores, 2020). She was recently awarded Honorable Mention by the New England Poetry Club for her translation of another poem from this collection. Explore her website to learn more.