William Agudelo (Colombia)

Por: William Agudelo
Traductor: Claribel Alegría

My pal

Tomás Argüello Sandoval, the president's cousin
looks like an ancient Greek:
tall as the door of a house
his chest a mass of fleece
his cat's eyes fearless
under the straw hat: his golden helmet
his whitish beard thick to the cheek bones.
An expert eye measures the vulva and hips of cows.
He sees the deer's footprints
                and the nibble on tender grass
The tautous' cave, the distant whirlwind of the shad.
He can judge the aim of the rifle and the stroke of a machete.
    His hands caress the fillies shanks and tames them with love.
His fences are sturdy with madero posts.
When you thirst in the mountain
He offers filtered water from a shrub.
They took his beautiful hacienda
Where he now is allowed to live as a laborer.
Tomás Argüello Sandoval talks about his poverty
like the noblemen talk about their ancestry.

William Agudelo was born in Bolombolo, Antioquia, Colombia, in November 14, 1942. He made some studies of Philosophy in the Seminar for adults of La Ceja (1964). Cofounder with Ernesto Cardinal of the Community of Solentiname Nicaragua (1966) from which he was a member until 1977. He worked with committees of solidarity with Nicaragua in Colombia and Germany (1978 - 1979). He worked as director of graphic arts and as producer of cultural recordings in the Ministry of Culture of Nicaragua from 1980 to 1984 and with reconstruction and development projects for the Association for the Development of Solentiname (APDS) from 1985 to 1990. He directed The Cultural Center Coro de Ángeles in Managua from 1990 until 2000. At the moment he is devoted to poetry, edition and correction works, to wood carving and leather engraving. Books: Nuestro lecho es de flores, 1970 (translated into German in several editions, under the title Unser Lager beiden Blumen auf dem Felde); El asalto a San Carlos, 1983; El ángel de San Judas, 1997; and Städtein Lateinamerika, Peter Hammer Verlag, Wuppertal, Germany, 1976 (collaboration with several authors of Latin America for a book about our cities with a special history.) Collaboration in poetry magazines such as: El Corno Emplumado, Zona Tórrida, Cormorán and Delfín, Nicarahuác and in literary supplements such as: La Prensa Literaria, El Nuevo Amanecer Cultural and The Literary Supplement of El Colombiano.