MAMAY KUSIKUCHKAN Mother’s Joy

MAMAY KUSIKUCHKAN

Kusisqam mamay kachkan, watakunam wawankunata kutichipun.
Hatun llaqtapi mana riqsisqa munaykunam suwarqurqa.
Asiriyninmi, asichikuynin waytarichkan.
Lliwpaq mikuna munaynin paqarichkan.
 
Kunan wata sarankunam anchata rururqun.
Papakuna, tukuy niraq ulluku, maswa, uqa sasa huñuna kanqa.
Murun rurukuna huntallaña, pisqukunapas saksasqam kachkanku.
Lliwmi pachapa kawsayninta qatichkan.
 
Tullpanchikpi mikuy huntasqam kanan.
Mikuy munaqman mikuyta maqllakunachu.
Kuyakuyninchik lliwpaqmi kanan.
Hunasqa yachayninmi llanllarichkan.
 
Raymiwanmi ayllupa kallpan llanllarin.
Waqrapukupas ancha miskitam waqaykun.
Aqapas hampiq qayllikunatam takichin.
Quyllurkunapas kusisqam kachkanku.
 
Mamaypa wiñay watankuna asikun, tusukunku,
waytariq chunka pusaqniyuq watanhinaraq.
Kukanmi aswan miski atiysapa kachkan.
Tiqsimuyu musyaq cigarrontam pitarqun, kawsaypa miskintam hayparqun.
 

Mother’s Joy

Mother is filled with joy. The years have returned her children.
The seductive, unknown life of the city has stolen them.
Her laughter and her spirit flourish once again.
The desire awakens in her to host a mikuna pampa.
 
Her corn is more plentiful this year than ever.
It will be hard to harvest all the papakuna, ulloku, maswa, uqa.
There are grains in abundance, and the birds are satisfied.
Everything follows the rhythm of the Earth.
 
The tullpa fire is the altar of abundance.
The victuals will be as generous as the soul.
Our love shall expand to all.
From the depth of its wisdom grow new shoots.
 
The vitality of the ayllupa renewed in celebration.
The horns are playing sweet sounds.
Aqapas had the people sing its glorious songs of healing
and the stars rejoice.
 
Mother’s years are laughing and dancing forever
just like her blossoming at eighteen.
Her kuka becomes sweeter and more powerful.
She draws on her astral cigar and knows the sweetness of existence.
 

MY MOTHER’S DELIGHT

My mother is happy
time has brought back her children.
The desires for the unknown life of the city had stolen them.
Now her laughs and her joking flourish again.
The wish awakens in her to invite everybody around.
 
Her corn plants have flourished this year like never before.
All the potatoes and multicoloured tubers will be hard to harvest.
There are grains in abundance, the birds are satisfied,
Everything follows the rhythm of the earth.
 
Our cooking fire is the altar to abundance.
The aliments shall not express the littleness of the soul.
Our love shall expand to everyone.
The depth of its wisdom grows new shoots.
 
The vital forces of the commoners have been renewed in the celebration,
The horns played a sweeter sound,
Chicha (corn) had the people sing its glorious songs of healing,
And the stars are cheerful.
 
My mother’s eternal years are laughing and dancing,
Just like at her blossoming eighteen years .
Her coca has become sweeter and powerful .
She drew on her astral cigar and understood the sweetness of existence.
 

Quechua is an ancient indigenous language family spoken in the Andean region, including Peru, Bolivia, and Ecuador. It encompasses many dialects and has its roots in the oral tradition. In fact, Quechua was originally only a spoken language until the Spanish came to Peru in 1526 and violently imposed the Roman alphabet.

Raúl Cisneros’ beautiful poem ‘Mother’s Joy’ evokes the landscapes, food and traditions of the poet’s birthplace, the Peruvian city of Ayacucho, and specifically the peasant community of Pariamarca, where Cisneros was a farmer, cattle herder, and baker.

During our translation workshop, we encountered many challenges, including how to best render an agglutinative language like Quechua, which is composed of one root word and suffixes added to express meaning, in English. One example was in the title, ‘Mamay Kusikuchkan’, where the ‘mama’ (mother) is accompanied by the suffix ‘y’, meaning mine. We discussed the many variations of the word ‘happiness’ in Quechua, and we settled for ‘Mother’s Joy’, as we thought it evoked a better sense of delight and pleasure expressed throughout the poem and gave the title a more universal meaning.

We also decided to leave some words in Quechua, emphasising the specificity of language in this particular poem and a distinctive sense of time and space. A family gathering with traditional food and drinks to celebrate the return of the mother’s children was rendered as a ‘mikuna pampa’, while the various multicoloured tubers of the region were left as papakuna, ulloku, maswa, uqa, with their vivid sounds and powerful rhythms. The cooking fire or hearth where women traditionally prepare their meals in Peru was left as the ‘tullpa fire’.

The poem begins with a domestic scene in a house in the Peruvian countryside and ends with a cosmological mother connecting, through chewing coca leaves and smoking astral cigars, the soil, fruits, plants and her whole existence, with a much bigger universe through a multiplicity of times.

— Leo Boix- Poet and Facilitator

Original Poem by

Raúl Cisneros

Translated by

Constantina Higbee with Latinx Creatives Workshop Language

Quechua

Country

Peru