Ricardo Cuéllar (Colombia)

Por: Ricardo Cuéllar
Traductor: Nicolás Suescún

The Confession

Men in purple, bald and lame
Installed the Council of Letran (1215)
And with wise serenity ordained
The Ritual of Confession
With its filled tribunals of inquisition.

The word was said:
You must confess the crimes and sins,
The thoughts, the desires,
The past, the dreams and childhood,
Your sicknesses and all of you miseries.

Man you sinner:
Confess! Publicly or privately
Repent! And the solemn conquest
The sacred confession.
Uncovers your soul
Or tears your body away.

The animal of the confession is born.

Ricardo Cuéllar Valencia was born in Calarcá, Quindio, Colombia on September 10, 1946. Poet, essayist, publisher and college professor. Sociologist from The Universidad Autónoma Latinoamericana of Medellín, Colombia, he made his doctorate in The University of Valladolid, Spain. During 35 years, he has worked as college professor in different universities from Mexico, Spain and Colombia. His academic experience consists in directing professorships in subjects such as Social Science, Poetics, Literary Criticism, Literary investigation methodology and History of Hispanic-American Literature. He has worked as cultural journalist, publisher of magazines, supplements and columnist in different newspapers from Colombia and Mexico. He has published the poetry books: Fatiga de los cereales, Sereno secreto de morir; Pasos del sueño y el insomnio; De los Mitos de Coyatoc; Rosa del destino; Los cielos de mi cuerpo and Ojos dorados del cuerpo. Among some of his published essay books we have: Simón Bolívar y las guerras de independencia en la Nueva Granada; Escritores chiapanecos del siglo XVll; and Fray Matías de Córdoba o el pensamiento criollo en el siglo XVll en Guatemala. He has been the Director of The Department of Literature of The Universidad Autónoma de Chiapas, México, where he published the Poetry Collection Poesía no eres tú. He also directed de cultural magazine Boca de Polen at the same university. He attended in 2004 the courses in The University of Valladolid corresponding to the doctorate degree entitled Don Quixote and the modern novel.