Inheritance
TAK Erzinger
What this recipe means to me is everything:
the fluffy clouds, mounds, steamed rice
combined with inky black beans, like a parcel of pearls
from familiar hands, ribboned in veins.
What I try to cultivate apart from a bush of cilantro and a constant
search for cumino is my colour that emerges on a sun-filled day,
the unusual way a stranger recognises a place in my face.
What black beans and rice will always conjure up for me:
colours and flavours combined, the meals connecting
me to you, our path to el Caribe mapped in blood
and an inheritance I will never be able to pass on.
the fluffy clouds, mounds, steamed rice
combined with inky black beans, like a parcel of pearls
from familiar hands, ribboned in veins.
What I try to cultivate apart from a bush of cilantro and a constant
search for cumino is my colour that emerges on a sun-filled day,
the unusual way a stranger recognises a place in my face.
What black beans and rice will always conjure up for me:
colours and flavours combined, the meals connecting
me to you, our path to el Caribe mapped in blood
and an inheritance I will never be able to pass on.
Herencia
traducido por Celesté Sadler
Lo que esta receta significa para mí es todo:
las nubes esponjosas, los montículos, el arroz al vapor
combinado con la oscuridad de los frijoles negros, como un
paquete de perlas
de manos conocidas, encintados en venas.
Lo que trato de cultivar aparte de un arbusto de cilantro y una con-
tinúa búsqueda de cumino es mi color que aparece en una día soleado,
de manera inusual un extraño reconoce un lugar en mi cara.
Lo que frijoles negros y arroz siempre me evocarán:
colores y sabores combinados, la comida conectandome a ti,
nuestro camino hacia el Caribe trazado en sangre
y una herencia que nunca podré dejar.
las nubes esponjosas, los montículos, el arroz al vapor
combinado con la oscuridad de los frijoles negros, como un
paquete de perlas
de manos conocidas, encintados en venas.
Lo que trato de cultivar aparte de un arbusto de cilantro y una con-
tinúa búsqueda de cumino es mi color que aparece en una día soleado,
de manera inusual un extraño reconoce un lugar en mi cara.
Lo que frijoles negros y arroz siempre me evocarán:
colores y sabores combinados, la comida conectandome a ti,
nuestro camino hacia el Caribe trazado en sangre
y una herencia que nunca podré dejar.
TAK Erzinger is an American/Swiss poet and artist with a Colombian background. Her poetry has been featured by journals at Indiana University, Cornell University, McMaster University, the University of Baltimore and more. Erzinger’s poetry collection “At the Foot of the Mountain,” (Floricanto Press 2021), won the University of Indianapolis, Etchings Press Whirling Prize for 2021 for best nature poetry book and was a finalist at The International Book Awards 2022. It was also a finalist at the Willow Run Book Awards and Eyelands Book Awards. Her poetry collection “Tourist” (Sea Crow Press 2023) was released in April. Erzinger has been awarded a spot by the Art Centre Padula, Artist in Residency Programme summer 2023. She lives on the foothills of the Alps in Switzerland with her husband and two cats.
