Gloria Cáceres Vargas
Ñawinchay, mayqin simipi: 
Runasimi 
castellano
Gloria Cáceres Vargas was born in Colta, Ayacucho, Perú. When she was seven years old she emigrated with her family to Chosica, a district on the outskirts of the capital city of Lima. Her childhood and adolescence were marked by annual trips made to her hometown during school holidays. Each trip was a reunion with the Quechua language and culture and the fruits of these experiences constitute her poetic and narrative works. Cáceres Vargas has published the following books: Riqsinakusun, Conozcámonos (1996), Munakuwaptiykiqa. Si tú me quisieras (2009), Wiñay suyasqayki. Te esperaré siempre (2010) y Yuyaypa K’anchaqnin (2015). Additionally, she has translated Warma Kuyay y otros cuentos de José María Arguedas (2011) into Quechua and has completed a number of unpublished bilingual stories and poems, as well as translations of works by both Peruvian and international writers.
Cáceres Vargas is professor emerita of the Enrique Guzmán y Valle National University of Education in Lima and also taught Quechua language courses at the National Institute of Oriental Languages and Civilizations (INALCO) in Paris, France (1999-2005). She has also taught at other universities in Paris, such as La Nouvelle Sorbonne and Cergy Pontoise (2001– 2005) and has held positions at the Ministry of Education in the Directorate of Intercultural Bilingual Education in Perú and at the Universidad Peruana Unión - Ñaña (2012– 2015). Cáceres Vargas has participated in various national and international conferences related to literary creation in indigenous languages and her current projects are centered on Quechua-Spanish, Spanish-Quechua translations, as well as translations from the French to Quechua or Spanish.
Author's books
The Train, its Wailing
I hear the wailing, the train
approaches from far away
honeyed dreams
tormented
carrying me instead to
serpentine, scabrous tracks
Deep in the night, the wailing
vanishes
only the song of the river who speaks
with her seething lashes
like blows that fall upon the soul
come to whisper, relating plunges foretold
Like the very cries of Time
I hear the echoes, the breaths
of my affliction
I search for a path to take flight
to cast off these fetters,
tying me to the void.
Where might I find a love
to hold me fast?
Who am I?
I search for my shadow, in the brilliant light
seeing myself, I shudder
and in the silence, I hear
your heart.
In the Sun’s beard
my dreams ignite
in the upper-world colorful ashes
envelop me until night falls.
The mountains’ power
abandons me, callously
with salt-heavy tears
I wash away the trace
of my ephemeral path
Yet my delight is unbounded
dancing, lingering…
So now do you know
who I am?
Apachita
Pichinkupa takinta
mana uyarispa
rikchariyta chiqnini.
Ñawiyki mana k’anchaptin,
chilliku mana takiptin,
¿imapaqmi kawsayman?
Manam apachita
ñanniykipi kanichu.
Chusaqpi manam imaypas
ñuqapa kawaqchu.
Kuyakuq miski asnayki
hap’iwaptinpas.
Much’aykikuna k’añawaptinpas
manam imaypas qampa kasaqchu
