POETIC DELIGHTS BY EDWIN ANTONIO GAONA SALINAS-U.S
Translated into English by Tajalla Qureshi
1-CANTO DE ESPERANZA
El parnaso en su canción
nos describe versos bellos,
cada luna con su sol
nos regala sus destellos,
Trina la generación
con sus bardos un rocío,
por calmar la sed de aquellos
que soportan el estío.
Solo tenemos pasión
y la luz de un girasol,
para el siglo del umbrío
el color de un arrebol.
Aquí estamos los poetas
con el canto de esperanza,
por la paz de los humanos
nivelando la balanza…
Este día de cometas
y de liras en el viento,
lo marcamos con templanza,
con amor y sentimiento.
En concierto de violetas
y pacíficos hermanos,
por calmar cualquier tormento
traemos versos lozanos.
Este canto por la vida
es por tantos olvidados,
y pedimos que tu ausencia
no los deje dominados.
Tengan todos luz florida
de los sueños y el cariño,
vengan todos desarmados
para dar calor a un niño.
Si la tierra vino unida
con su límpida inocencia,
es mejor que lleve un guiño
y no lacras de inclemencia.
Song of Hope
Gaonesa Realenga / Aradeña
Parnassus, in its song,
describes for us fair verses;
each moon with its own sun
throws down its scatter of splendor.
A generation trills—
its bards a dewy blessing—
to soothe the thirst of those
who bear the summer’s burning.
We have only our passion
and the light of a sunflower,
to paint this shadowed century
with the blush of after‑sunset.
Here we stand, we poets,
with a song of hope,
for peace among all people
tipping back the balance…
This day of kites aloft
and of lyres in the wind,
we mark it with restraint,
with love and deep feeling.
In a choir of violets
and of peaceful brothers, sisters,
to quiet any storm
we bring fresh, vigorous verses.
This singing for life
is for so many forgotten;
we ask that your absence
not leave them overcome.
May everyone be granted
a flowering light of dreams
and of affection; come, all, unarmed,
to give warmth to a child.
If the earth came joined
in its lucid innocence,
let it carry a playful wink—
not scars of mercilessness.
2-TE LLAMO TIERRA
Te llamo Norte, a la mesa mía,
Te llamo Sur, donde amar concuerde,
Te llamo Oeste, al brillar naciente.
Te llamo Oriente, a la pampa verde.
Aquí se firma la paz del día,
la voz amiga, la sed calmada,
la paz abraza, la lezna pierde…,
la calma es tuya con mies soñada.
Frontera triste al regazo enfría,
y tienes miel del amor viviente,
el mundo quiere feliz tonada,
Estado puro con buena gente.
.
Los padres vienen ansiando vida,
Los viejos cruzan campos de bruma,
las madres sueñan ver a sus hijos
donde se ilustran con buena pluma.
Piden de urgencia firmar salida,
hablan de arriba, trinan de abajo
y por los lados el mundo suma
banderas blancas buscando atajo.
La mente oscura viene perdida
pide resuelvan los acertijos,
parece cáncer el desparpajo
y solo el sueño da regocijos.
.
Aquellos tiempos se van vividos,
los sufrimientos fueron cadenas.
Ahora el tiempo sabe que somos
humanos nuevos, con nuevas venas.
Las calles dicen, jamás vencidos,
y piden calma las comadrejas,
los niños piden vengan mecenas
liberen padres que van con rejas.
Algunos mueren en sus olvidos,
rompen las pieles, ponen sus lomos,
bregan por nada, dejan sus quejas,
y cada trueno viene con plomos.
.
Viven de fieros domos…
prohibiendo la luz con hiel audaz,
pero nuestra voz…, es voz de paz.
.
Trasladen sus aromos…
que nosotros somos, verso y más…,
y nadie…, nos callará jamás.
I Call You Earth
Gaonesa Realenga / Aradeña, double estrambote (double coda), multi‑rhythm
I call you North, to my table;
I call you South, where love accords;
I call you West, to newborn gleaming;
I call you East, to the green plain.
Here we sign the peace of day,
the friendly voice, the thirst made calm;
peace embraces—
the awl grows dull…;
quiet is yours with harvest dreamed.
A sorrowed border chills the lap,
yet you hold honey of living love;
the world desires a happy tune,
a land made pure with good people.
Fathers come longing for life;
elders cross through fields of mist;
mothers dream of seeing their children
where a good pen enlightens them.
Urgently they ask to sign release;
they speak from above, they trill from below,
and on all sides the world adds up
white flags looking for a shortcut.
A darkened mind comes lost
and begs you solve the riddles;
impudence looks like cancer,
and only dreaming brings rejoicing.
Those times go by—well lived;
the sufferings were chains.
Now time knows that we are
new humans with new veins.
The streets declare: never defeated,
and even the weasels ask for calm;
children plead for patrons to come
free the parents who go in shackles.
Some die lost inside forgetting,
flay their skins, bend their backs,
struggle for nothing, drop their complaints,
and every thunder comes with lead.
Estrambote / Coda
They dwell beneath fierce domes…
forbidding light with brazen gall,
yet our voice… is a voice of peace.
Bring along your fragrances…
for we are verse—and more—and none…
no one… will silence us ever.
3-MUCHACHOS ABANDONADOS
(Gaonesa realenga o aradeña, octosílaba, ritmo: 2, 7)
El astro de las quimeras
renace por lo apacible,
con fábula de serpiente
y gráfica incompatible,
ignora de las laderas
la pena de los sangrantes.
El ángulo disponible
atrapa de los infantes
sus míseras cartoneras…
y el viejo sobreviviente,
de rocas beligerantes…
ahoga con su vertiente.
La calle desaparece
con ojos incandescentes
y pálidos los colores
de oxígenos y aguardientes,
desnudan lo que parece
catástrofe del averno…
Los ojos de los decentes
poblados de lo materno,
despiden lo que fenece
con lágrimas y dolores,
los antros del sempiterno
rebosan con los horrores.
Muchachos de la frontera
se nublan de soledades
y cargan a sus costados
perdidas divinidades,
muchachos de la trinchera,
del vicio de la locura,
lejanos y en orfandades
se siembran su desventura.
Los hijos de la pradera
con crónicas de llorados
sin nada por la ternura
reposan abandonados.
Abandoned Boys
Gaonesa Realenga / Aradeña, octosyllabic, rhythm 2–7
The star of chimeras
is reborn in what seems gentle,
with the fable of a serpent
and an image out of joint;
it ignores, from the hillsides,
the sorrow of the bleeding.
The vacant corner seizes
from the children their poor cardboard—
and the old survivor, sprung
from belligerent rock,
floods them with its runoff.
The street dissolves away
with incandescent eyes,
its colors turning pallid
of air and cheap spirits;
stripped bare, it shows what looks
like a catastrophe from hell…
The eyes of decent people,
filled up with what is maternal,
see what dies and let it go
with tears and aching grief;
the dens of the everlasting
overflow with horrors.
Boys from the borderlands
cloud over with loneliness
and carry at their sides
lost divinities;
boys from the trench lines,
from the vice of madness,
far off and orphan‑made,
they sow their own misfortune.
The prairie’s sons, with stories
of the wept‑for dead,
with nothing left of tenderness,
lie down abandoned.
AUTHOR:
EDWIN ANTONIO GAONA SALINAS-U.S
EDWIN ANTONIO GAONA SALINAS. - Poet and writer born in San Antonio de las Aradas, Quilanga, Loja – Ecuador. He is the creator of the lyrical structure "La Gaonesa" as a monostrophic poem and as a stanza in polystrophic poems, with several symmetrical and asymmetrical subspecies. Among his literary achievements are: First prize for poetry in the XX Poetry Contest "International Workers' Festival" Mota del Cuervo, Cuenca – Spain, 2017. First Place, "LI BAI" trophy conferred by the World Organization of Troubadours, UNWTO-CHINA, 2020. First Prize in the Tenth International Jotabé Rhyme Contest, Valencia - Spain, 2021. First place in the First Poetry and Declamation Contest 2021, organized by the Cultural Platform the Culture of the Quetzal. Retalhuleu Guatemala, 2021. First place in the II International Literary Contest "Esdrújulas en Poesía" in Rocha – Uruguay, 2022. First Prize of the Ontinyent Parnaso Poetic Gathering Contest of the XXI Century, Alicante – Spain, 2022. First prize for poetry at the II José Ángel Buesa Floral Games, Lima – Peru, 2022. Poetry without Rhyme Award, at the XV Maestro Ruiz de Sousa International Literary Contest, Rocha Uruguay, 2022. First Prize for poetry of the III International Poetry Contest Espejo de Alicante 2023, with a poem from the Gaonesa Polystrophic structure, subspecies Gaonesa Realenga or Aradeña. Among others.
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