“El Amar Y El Querer,” by Marta Juárez-Aguilar
April 17, 2020
El Amar Y El Querer
Es el cielo o el infierno
Aquella voz como fuego
Que consume mente y cuerpo
Cenizas dejadas al viento
Saberlo todo y vivir la nada
Estar viva y morir viviendo
Comprender, no comprendiendo
Es el yugo que a mi mente mata
Ligado al dueño del sentimiento
Estar dormida y soñar despierta
Es algo más que se lleva el tiempo
Hablar sin palabras, llorar sonriendo
El gemir del alma es fuego sintiendo
Mirar sin ojos y sentir sin cuerpo
Loving and Wanting
Is it heaven or hell
That voice like fire
That consumes mind and body
Ashes released in the wind
To know everything and to live nothingness
To be alive and to die living
To understand, without understanding
It’s the yoke that kills my mind
Tied to the owner of the feeling
To be asleep asleep and daydreaming
It’s something else that takes time
To speak without words, to cry smiling
The groaning of the soul is fire feeling
To look without eyes and feel without body
Evergreen High School student Marta Juárez-Aguilar wrote “El Amar y El Querer” during the 2018/19 academic year, during a residency with WITS Writer-in-Residence Raúl Sánchez. Watch Raúl read the poem in our #SALMoment video for Friday, April 17, 2020.