Eliana Maldonado (Colombia)

Por: Eliana Maldonado
Traductor: Nicolás Suescún

Oblivion

I have forgotten the symbols
The forms of the letters
The sound of phonemes to cut the silence
I do not know how to write his name
And much less how to pronounce it
Motionless, on a desert beach
I wear the dress of salt given me by destiny
There are no signals or tempests during the day
And at night multitudes of stars silently ignore the need I have
To know their names
Wet sand daily buries my bare feet
Do not remember the grass, nor the cement, or the shoes
My hands in an effort to grasp the air
Lost the mobility of long ago
Long ago-
Long ago when I knew little and felt little
I knew of love in the sea
Of the salt skin in my mouth
Of the warm present of his body
Not mattering the sarcastic gaze of the fish
Long ago I knew that his saliva sated my thirst
And that my greatest possession was in the fine silver threads that
   crowned his head
I have forgotten the words,
The phonemes, the numbers, the dates
Like a child coming back to the world
Understanding nothing
Feeling everything
The black pupils he had have come out from the orbits to look for the
   code with which I deciphered the world.

Eliana Maldonado was born in Medellín in December 20, 1978. Some short stories, a short novel and a collection of compilated poems in an unpublished book entitled Imprecaciones are the outcome of ten years of work. Actually she studies Petroleum Engineering in The Universidad Nacional de Colombia, she walks towards a mature, profound poetics which reveals the situation of her surroundings of the feminine condition of her country. First prize in the award of erotic poetry Jazz-Eros from The National University of Colombia, with the poem "Fuera del Paraíso", 2005. He has published some of his poems in The Magazine Punto Seguido, issuje Number 48. Active participation in the radio program "Taller de Luna" from the radio station of The National University of Medellín. Her poetic work has a highly erotic content as well as sensitive, without falling in what is vulgar or prosaic, it is constant the use of analogies, where the metaphiores taken from the natural world, are transformed into feelings and human affection. A poetry marked by her own experiences and ways of looking the world, written in a simple and open language. She focuses the social problem with a smart look in front of the contemporary world. In her typically simple and clear way of expression, she makes subtle critics to the view which actually have different scientific and intellectual circles.