Kilku Warak’a

Kilku Warak’a

Kilku Warak’a (pseudonym for Andrés Alencastre Gutiérrez, 1909–1984 Canas, Cusco). Recognized as one of the most noteworthy of Quechua language poets, he is primarily known for his three, monolingual poetry collections (Taki parwa, 1952 Taki ruru, 1964, Yawar para, 1972), although Warak’a also penned various plays (El pongo Killkito, Los arrieros, Ch’allakuy, among others). José María Arguedas praised Taki Parwa as “the most important contribution to Quechua literature since the eighteenth century … the culmination of a [transitional] process from popular Quechua artistic practices to forms of written literature.” Even when Warak’a dedicates his verses to commonplace subjects of Quechua poetry (Lake Titicaca, maternal figures, the puma, or Illapa, the mythological Incan god of thunder, lightning bolts and lightning flashes), the images painted by the poet are innovative, even seventy years after the initial publication of Taki parwa. Like the whiskers of the poetic subject of his famous poem “Puma”, Kilku Warak’a’s verses still illuminate, “In the sun they dazzle, glittering” (“Intitaraq llakllacinki”). We include below, two moving poems from the Taki parwa collection “Mama qucha” (“Mother Lake”) and “P’uncayniykipi” (“On Your Day”) —they are read, and have been translated from the Quechua by the Cusqueñan poet Odi Gonzales. We include as well, a link to an audio recording from 1958 which was taped  at the Peruvian-Northamerican Cultural Institute of Cusco and which is archived in Washington D.C. at the Library of Congress. In the recording, Kilku Warak’a/Andrés Alencastre reads eight of his poems in runasimi, followed by versions of the poems in Spanish, translated by the poet. Warak’a begins by reading his lengthy, prize winning poem “Illimani”.