Shelf Unbound October/November 2013 October 2013 | Page 63

poetry

Poetarzan
by Jorge Santiago Perednik
me be poet
me respect language
that be foreign to me
like own
language, good friend
language, companion
me no know what language is
but me love her
language be like sun
me no know sun
know what it does to us
white man teach me read
and me discover there said:
when jungle of letters
cover jungle inside
me know poetarzan never be without jungle

From The Shock of the Lenders and Other Poems by Jorge
Santiago Perednik, translated from the Spanish by Molly
Weigel, Action Books 2012, www.actionbooks.org. Reprinted
with permission. All rights reserved.

UNBOUND

61