Virgo

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---------------- Virgo



La virgen,
pura como una gota de azogue,
en la cintura un cinturón de zafiros,
reina sobre la tierra mudable.
-------La vigila Mercurio
mientras ella ordena cuidadosamente
las cuentas de cornerina, de sardónice
----en la calma de la noche plena.


-----------© Rafael Jesús González 2014



--------------Virgo
 
The virgin,
pure as a drop of quicksilver,
girdled with sapphires,
reigns over the changing earth.
-------Mercury watches her
as she carefully orders
the beads of carnelian, of sardonyx
-----in the calm of full night.



-----------© Rafael Jesús González 2014
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Full moon: A Friend Told Me

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--------Una amiga me contó


Una amiga me contó
que cuando de niña
en noches de luna llena
le pedía al papá que la levantara
alto para que pudiera besar a la luna.
Ay, la luna estaba demasiada lejana,
demasiada más allá del alcance
de los labios, los brazos extendidos
de una niña.

Tal vez sería menos mal;
el beso de una querida tan fría
se dice volver a uno loco.




----------------------------© Rafael Jesús González 2014

----------A Friend Told Me


A friend told me
that when she was a little girl
on nights of the full moon
she would ask her father to lift her
high so that she could kiss the moon.
Alas, the moon was too far away,
too out of reach
of the proffered lips,
outstretched arms
of a child.

Perhaps it was just as well;
the kiss of such a cold mistress
is said to drive one mad.





-----------------------------© Rafael Jesús González 2014

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Nagasaki August 9, 1945

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Let us keep a moment of silence for Nagasaki which, three days after Hiroshima, August 9, 1945 sixty-nine years ago was victim of a nuclear bomb. Never, ever must we allow this to happen again. 


Guardemos un momento de silencio por Nagasaki que, tres días despues de Hiroshima, el 9 de agosto 1945 hace sesenta y nueve años fue víctima de una bomba nuclear. Nunca jamás permitamos que esto vuelva a suceder.

 

 

A young girl dying
taught the world to fold paper
cranes — still there is war.
Blessings written on their wings,
oh, paper cranes, fly for peace.

---------------------© Rafael Jesús González 2014 



 

Sadako Sasaki by Juana Alicia

 

Una niña muriendo
le enseñó al mundo doblar grullas
de papel — aun hay guerra.
Bendiciones escritas en sus alas
¡O garzas de papel! vuelen por la paz.

-------------------------© Rafael Jesús González 2014

 

(to make an origami crane) 


"This is our cry. This is our prayer. 
Peace in the world." 

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Hiroshima, August 6, 1945

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It was on this day in 1945, sixty-nine years ago, that the United States dropped an atomic bomb on the city of Hiroshima, Japan. Three days later, another on Nagasaki. We must never let it happen again; let us work for complete nuclear disarmament throughout the world.

It's said that if you
fold one-thousand paper cranes
your wish will come true.
For peace I would gladly spend
the rest of my days folding.

----------------------------------------© Rafael Jesús González 2014

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translation into Japanese and calligraphy 

-by Prof. Naoshi Koriyama

     

Se dice que si
doblas mil grullas de papel
se cumplirá tu deseo.
Por la paz felizmente me pasaría
el resto de mis días doblando.

----------------------                    --------© Rafael Jesús González 2014

In June of 1983, about a thousand of us imprisoned in Santa Rita Prison because of blocking the entrance to the Lawrence Livermore Laboratories, California, where nuclear arms are designed, occupied ourselves folding cranes from old newspapers; among us all, we made many more than a thousand to send to Japan.

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