Emma Paz Noya

Emma Paz Noya

(1920–2013? Cochabamba, Bolivia). Poet and talented Quechua-Spanish translator, most notably of the work of celebrated Bolivian poet Mosoh Marka (pseudonym of Juan Guerra Villanueva). In 1987 Emma Paz Noya won international recognition when she received the poetry prize at an international literary competition organized by the Quechua Language Academy of the Cusco (Concurso Internacional de Literatura). In his prologue to Paz Noya’s 1977 poetry collection Queshwa t’ikariy / Apogeo quechua, Jorge Lira praises the poet’s oeuvre and affirms, “Thus we find in her work many new words and phrases which [Paz Noya] styles and which can be integrated into our own lexicon … In these poems there is depth [and]… a surprising sensitivity.” Although she dedicates verses to well-known themes in Bolivian Quechua-language poetry written during the 19th and 20th centuries (the intensity of maternal love, the search for the lost lover), many other memorable and highly original poems by the author meditate on the life cycles of “The curve of life” (“Kausaypa wichay uraynin”) of humans and other elements of nature —dry leaves, sun rays, the games of the wind. The author reminds us that our passage through this world does not last long, “The strength is borrowed” (“Sinchi kaypis mañasqalla”) and that “Life, which lasts but a flicker, is only a pilgrimage” (“Kay pachapi kausayninchej / yanpi thaskiywan ninakun”).