T’ikha Takiy / Song to the Flowers

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…