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MARÍA CLARA GONZÁLEZ DE URBINA—COLOMBIA—


Poet, essayist, and translator. Professional in literary studies at the Universidad Javeriana in Bogota. Included since 1990, in traveling exhibitions, in various anthologies in Colombia, United States, Canada, France, Mexico, Romania and Chína, as well as in productions of poems set to music. Invited by the Embassy of Colombia in Madrid, Spain 1998, by the Chair of Literature, at Macalester College, St. Paul Minnesota, USA 2003, by the publishing house Pilpinta to Lima, Peru, and to New York USA by Latinpoets Organization in 2013. Participant in national and international poetry gatherings since 1991, her poems have been translated into several languages and her books are in print and in

e-book.


Among her publications, some of them bilingual, stand out: In poetry: Pulso Interno/Inner Pulse (1990), Corte en el tiempo/Break on time (1993), Pasajeros del Viento/Passengers of the wind (1996), El lento trabajo del olvido/The gente labour of oblivion (2002); Eternidad Visible/Visible Eternity (2008), Habitar un umbral/ Inhabiting a threshold (2013), No era un viernes/ It was not a Friday (2014) and Mientras nieva en Marte/ (2023). In essay: Imagological analysis of "Álbum de billetera" by Colombian writer Rodrigo Parral Sandoval, Editorial U. Javeriana & U. Nacional Bogotá 2017; Zapotec Heritage in poetry: Irma Pineda Santiago y Natalia Toledo Paz (EILA, 2018); Las Invisibles de la Generación del 27 en España/ The Invisibles of the Generation of 1927 in Spain, (2019).

Translations from English to Spanish for Editorial Panamericana, Bogotá in 2005 Collection: Greek Myths for Children: The Voyages of Odysseus, The Adventures of Perseus, Theseus and the Minotaur, The Trojan Horse, and Collection for Young Scientists: Forms, Weight and Time and Surfaces and Volumes. Unpublished works, short stories: Tiempo suspendido (Suspended Time) and essay: Las dos Coreas, sospecha y desconfianza (The Two Koreas, Suspicion and Mistrust).



ENCOUNTER

If life

grants us another moment

I will let you be yourself

I will

simply be myself


I will listen

when the melody

of your music

and mine

melt together.


ENCUENTRO



Si la vida

nos regala otro encuentro

te dejaré ser tú

seré sencillamente yo


Escucharé

cuando se unan

la melodía

de tu música

y la mía.




TO NAME ABSENCE


There are absences we learn to name

such as childhood

or the smell of fresh baked bread


Names of faraway friends are spelled

as are those roads once walked together


Absence are woven on rainy afternoons

when Grandfather’s tales are remembered


There are absences that marks our existence

—since ever—

like a deceased father


There are absences

entwined with years

to be recalled any day

with the tenderness of a silent sea


But to name his absence

Is impossible

He dwells in my universe


and even if I never name him

the word absence shall reside secretly

when called upon to speak of us.



NOMBRAR LA AUSENCIA

Hay ausencias que se aprenden a nombrar

como la infancia

o el aroma del pan recién horneado


Se deletrean ausencias de amigos que se marchan

y de caminos que alguna vez se transitaron juntos


Se tejen las ausencias en tardes de llovizna

cuando se recuerdan las historias del abuelo


Hay ausencias que nos marcan la existencia

—desde siempre—

como de padre muerto


Hay ausencias que se trenzan con los años

y un día cualquiera recordamos

con ternura de mar que se silencia


Pero nombrar su ausencia

Es imposible

habita mi universo

y aunque jamás lo nombre

la palabra ausencia

se ocultaría aprehensiva

cuando intente llamarla para hablar de nosotros.



PACT

In case it drizzles on your street

and you wish to dry your body

within my arms


If silence overcomes

and you remember that strange language

learnt by my side


If you return

to dampen memories with moons


If the tropic impatiently claims you

within its verdour


Or in case it is night in your dwelling

I shall leave the door open



PACTO


Si acaso llovizna por tu calle

y quieres secar tu cuerpo

entre mis brazos


Si el silencio te asalta

y recuerdas el lenguaje extraño

que aprendiste a mi lado


Si regresas

a humedecer de lunas los recuerdos


Si el trópico te reclama impaciente

entre sus verdes


O sí acaso es de noche en tu morada

dejaré la puerta abierta.

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