Poem by Luis Alberto AMBROGGIO

Born in 1945 in Cordoba, Argentina and now residing in USA. He went to USA in 1967 and served in the White House Cabinet Committee for the advancement of Hispanic population during Nixon administration. He also worked at the Pan American Development Foundation and at Embassy of Argentina in Washington DC. Classified as one of the most important poets amongst the Hispanic writers in US, Prof Luis Alberto Ambroggio a prominent scholar had written 20 poetry books (four are bilingual in Spanish and English) including We are all Whitman (2016), Tribute to the Road (2015), Estados Unidos Hispanos (2015), Poetic Anthology of Luis Alberto Ambroggio (2015), In the Garden of the Winds. Poetic Corpus 1974-2014) etc. His works had been translated into many languages like English, French, Italian, Romanian, Mandarin, Korean, Catalan, Hebrew, Japanese, Turkish and Bahasa Malaysia. He taught in many prominent universities in USA, Spain, Nicaragua, Mexico, Canada, El-Salvador etc. He won many awards for his writtings in essays, poetry and translations.

 

WE WOULD LIKE TO BREATHE PEACE

We go through the bottom and the heights
through the streets of the embrace of peace
with the salutation of shalom, salaam,
in search of pure air
and a divine sunshine that would bless everyone the same way.

Peace, white, water that slides
between our hands
when we would like to drink it.

And we were a legion marching
because the thirst for the rainbow is immense;
the night does not keep us calm.

Why are there more deaths and graves
if she – death – hounds us without remedy
and forces us each day to bury her?

Peace: do not make us more cruel
than in the childhood games,
at the beginning of light and life.

Why is there no more love or tolerance,
that will bury the hatred of all deaths and bullets
those that protect injustice, money,
the unpunished voice of pulpits, of races?

Why is there only love to be able to remember
the benign deaths that still talk to us?

Peace, a short word, the maternal desire
of a lone root of the soul,
all the way to the shyest
corner of the universe.

It is our turn, once and for all,
to emigrate to the sacred peace,
from the absurd territory
that only kills.

 

KAMI MAHU HIRUP UDARA KEAMANAN

Kita lalui waktu sukar dan gemilang
melalui jalan-jalan yang mendakap keamanan
dengan ucapan shalom, salam
untuk mencari udara tulin
dan cahaya mentari suci yang akan menyinari
semua orang dengan cara yang sama

Keamanan, putih, air yang mengalir
di antara tangan kita
ketika kita mahu meminumnya

Dan kita adalah pasukan yang berkawad
kerana dahaga kepada pelangi itu teramat sangat;
malam tidak menjadikan kita lebih tenang

Kenapa lebih banyak lagi kematian dan kuburan
jika ia – kematian- menghambat kita tanpa ada ubatnya
dan memaksa kita mengebumikannya setiap hari

Keamanan: jangan jadikan kami lebih kejam
melainkan dalam permainan di zaman kanank-kanak
di permulaan cahaya dan kehidupan

Kenapa tiada lagi cinta dan toleransi,
yang akan menanam kebencian kepada kematian dan peluru semua itu melindungi ketidak-adilan, duit
suara dari mimbar bangsa-bangsa yang tidak dihukum?
kenapa hanya cinta yang boleh mengingati

Kemesraan kematian yang masih bercakap kepada kita?
keamanan, kata yang pendek, impian ibunda
akan tinggal dalam kalbu
sepanjang jalan ke pelusuk dunia paling sunyi,

Ia adalah giliran kita, untuk kesekian kalinya
untuk berhijrah kepada keamanan yang sakral
daripada wilayah mujarad
yang hanya membunuh

 

Translated into  BAHASA MELAYU by  Siti Ruqaiyah  HASHIM 

FROM 2ND PEACE POEM ANTHOLOGY: 
PEACE BE UPON YOU DAVOS.