tamya pakarimuni sumaklla
pankalla
mana pipa makipi wataytukushka kuyaylla chumpikunawanlla
pillurishka
ñuka samaypash tamya yaku urmakshinami wakakun
ñuka aychapash
ñawpa urkukunashina pukumukun ñawpa mamakunapa ushay
katimushka
chinkarishka ayllukunapa puma aya
tarimushka ñuka hatun mamami
chayamushka
tamya yakushina
mishki shimikunata apamushpa kunkarishka takikunata
uyachishpa paymi paypakaman shamushka may ninan
warmi kashka
Imprison my flesh, if you want,
Harm my heart, if you want,
Tear away my hair, if you want,
Tie my hands and feet, if you want.
Perhaps,
Maybe you do not stop
Until you see my body rot.
If it is going to be like that,
Only my worms will take me to my mother Pachamama.
I will be there too!
I will feed the trees
with my rotting skin.
Yes,
I will grow fruit in any plant
So that my brothers
So that my sisters
Will be fed.
And, then my brothers,
And then my sisters
They will be strengthened
With my rebirth.
And, likewise,
I will scream
In the voices of my brother and sister:
“Yes! I’m Quechua!”
Do what you want!
Do what you want!
But, Never ever
Will you take away
who I am.
Oh mallow root, mallow root
across these windswept heights,
my lover roams
Once young,
the sun was on the rise
and now,
the sun descends
The clouds advance, the winds they swell
The people come, from sorrows they come
With the rains they come, with the winds they come
and thus, for you, they come
Across the sapphire river, across the Pukara plain
In search of you I shall
walk on, and so, walk on
Near here, chikaylla you might come
So far, karumanta, you can’t wish to flee
Could that be you, just there
behind me?
and me here still searching
for you
And I will go down river
And I will go upriver
Where my love shall I find you?
Traversing the pampas of Oruro
crossing Bolivia
searching,
gathering just dahlias
weeping,
walking
I shall leave Oruro now
my woven aguayo
lost
carrying cloth for all things
what reason to remain?
And high above, Condor
soars
his white shawl tightly tied
above sacred Illimani’s peak
he ascends
Where is it now he is off to?
And so you are my only
And so I am yours only
And so we shall be together
weeping
on
I shall steal you away, leading you
Within my heart, leading you
away…
