From a new bilingual Spanish/English Edition, translated by Lynn Levin. New York: 2Leaf Press, 2014
“Saint Isidore the Farmer” by Odi Gonzales
Basilio Santa Cruz Pumqallo, Cathedral of Cusco
The morning star
begins to brighten in the firmament
it shines
like the white coffin of a child
in a distant churchyard:
the constellation of the plow
a great serenity
a motionless calm
On the terrace crowded with red parrots
chattering birds predict rain
and hailstorms
could this be the path of heaven?
Isidore the farmer
is not at his post, and the owner
of these parcels of land
planted with coca
discovers that in his absence
the angels are plowing his fields
(the background
dissolves
into an arbor and
a far-off field of boulders)
as the oxen traveled back and forth
driving furrows into the rocky ground
I acquired the greatest of my misfortunes, old
weary laborer that I am:
stones forming in my kidneys
and my hoe and harrow, the yoke for my beasts
on the plot of St. Eligius
patron of blacksmiths
Notes:
Basilio Santa Cruz Pumaqallo was a master of the School of Cusco. He painted Saint Isidore the Farmer from 1691-1693.
Path of Heaven is a narrow street in Cusco.
* * *
“God Shows Paradise to Adam and Eve” by Odi Gonzales
18th century, Cusco School, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
The forest of Colcampata
Eyebrow of the rainforest
The orchards of the Urco hacienda?
The Manzanares Estate?
Eve’s naked charm, voluptuous flesh
the sleepy eyes of the first ox
cannot take it all in
A slender leaf covers her sex . . . a sprig of lemon balm?
Here, at least thirty types of birds
are scattered in the vegetation.
The bird of paradise/the passion fruit blossom
sprouts
Nile green
flag red
in the forest clearing
And a river went out of Eden
that watered the garden
Tea plantations?
Coffee haciendas?
The lowing of cattle at the troughs
No still life
one
graffito:
exit on the right
two thurifer angels perfume
the last months of Mary’s pregnancy
Mother Earth?
Hortus conclusus/cloistered garden
Notes:
Colcampata is an Inca palace located in the northern part of Cusco. In the sixteenth century, the Spanish conquerors gave the palace of Colcampata to Cristobal Paullu Inca, one of the puppet Incas installed by the Spanish.
Urco, a small village in Peru’s Sacred Valley, was the home of Inca Urco, one of the sons of the emperor Viracocha Inca, who ruled during the early fifteenth century.
Manzanares is a hacienda in Calca, a town in Peru’s Sacred Valley.
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