Macarena Urzúa Opazo & Emilia Phillips

Las estrellas

Las estrellas nacen, brillan, viajan tal como sobreviven
pierden poco a poco su esplendor en millones de años

Sepulcros errantes
cadáveres gélidos se desplazan por la noche espacial
esperando su hora de destrucción la que será
al mismo tiempo
su hora de resucitar

Volver al pasado a través de los nudos del paisaje
de la posición de las estrellas sus planos inclinados
incordios o metáforas
el encuadre de nuestros ojos redondos tras un lente
de teles

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Stars

Stars are born, blaze, voyage all
the while surviving, losing
little by little their splendor
over millions of years

In the cosmic night,
itinerant graves displace
glacial corpses
who wait for their hour
of destruction
which will be
the same as the hour
of their resurrection

Go back to the past knots
of landscape,
in the position of the stars,
their inclined planes
Nuisances or metaphors
frame our round eyes
behind the lens
of a telescope

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Akâsa
                    —‘firmamento’ en sánscrito

Cada estrella es un alma individual

Cada astro es un planeta independiente
con alma propia

Todos los átomos están henchidos del divino flujo
del alma del mundo
Así Respiran

                    Viven

                                        Sienten

                                                            Sufren

Cuerpos celestes imágenes de dioses dice madame Blavatsky son las apariciones
de estrellas y planetas

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Akâsa
                    —“firmament” in Sanskrit

Each star is an individual
soul

Each asteroid is an independent
planet
with its own soul

All atoms
are swollen
with the godlike flux
of the world’s soul

And so
they breathe

                    live

                                        feel

                                                            suffer
Images of gods,
says Mme. Blavatsky,
are the phantoms
of stars and planets

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Antares

Una nebulosa pequeña rodea a la estrella luminosa
Antares sopla rápidamente mucho gas

tiene una compañía azul parece ser un rival de Marte

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Antares

A small nebula surrounds an incandescent star
Antares puffs and blows gasses

It has a blue companion—
seemingly a rival of Mars

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Apus

Igual al espíritu de las montañas

Un viajero del siglo XVI las nombró dispuestas en un zigzag
se unen a sus vecinas azules la constelación sur
vecina de Musca y Octans

el ave del paraíso entre apus
y el triángulo austral

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Apus

Equal to the spirit of the mountains

A 16-century traveler named them
In a zigzag,
they join their blue neighbors
The southern constellation
next door to Musca and Octans

The bird of paradise
Apus
and the Triangulum Australe

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Earendel

Estrella descubierta por el telescopio Hubble la más lejana hallada hasta la fecha
a una distancia de 12.900 años luz expiración

Earandel, la estrella de la mañana y de la tarde como el lucero Venus
solo que esa estrella es una que viaja
en su propio barco

 

Otra fábrica de estrellas es la nebulosa de Orión

 

Un brazo de la Vía Láctea donde se ven
manchas galaxias nubes
oh Magallanes

 

Algunos cielos
son esponjados
ahí se alinean
demasiados planetas

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Earendel

Star discovered by Hubble,
farthest found to date, a distance
of 12,900 lightyears
away

expired light

Earendel, star of morning and evening
like the luminous Venus—
is the only one
that travels
on its own ship

 

Another star
factory is
the Orion nebula

 

An arm of the Milky Way
where one can see
inkblots, galaxies,
clouds
Oh, Magellan

 

Some skies
are wooly
they are so full
of planets

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Macarena Urzúa Opazo is a Chilean poet, researcher, and Associate Professor in the Department of Literature and Linguistics at Universidad de Santiago, Chile. She holds a Ph.D. in Hispanic Literatures from Rutgers University. Her scholarly work includes co-authoring ¿Quién le teme a la poesía? and co-editing Beyond Nature and Concisa, original y vibrante. She is the author of several poetry collections, including Jersey City (2009), Escrito sobre el agua (2019), and Manual (2023). Her poems have been translated into English and French and published internationally. She has been a Visiting Professor at Williams College and the University of Mannheim, and a recipient of the Getty and DAAD research grants. Urzúa Opazo is also a co-organizer of the International Po Ex Conference and a contributor to the Bilingual Anthology Po-Ex.

Emilia Phillips (they/them) is the author of five poetry collections from the University of Akron Press, including Nonbinary Bird of Paradise (2024) and Embouchure (2021), and four chapbooks. Their poetry, creative nonfiction, and book reviews have appeared widely. They are an Associate Professor of Creative Writing in the Department of English; MFA in Writing Program; and the Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program at UNC Greensboro.