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Praise of Ecuador

Ecuador , my country, emerald of the world

encrusted in the equinoctial ring,

you consecrate the alliance of man and earth,

the telluric wedding with the deep bride

of volcanic breasts and cereal body,

bride dressed always with the Sunday best

by the farmer sun, father of seeds.

I want to kiss all your green body,

your jungle hair,

your venter of corn and sugar cane

and rest my forehead in your bosom of flowers.

 

You taught me the natural sciences

of the bountiful tree and the healer tree,

of talking birds, more colorful than fruits,

the new zoology of a fabulous world

and the history of a people

who cry even while dancing

aiming their longing to the clouds

in festive skyrockets,

fire that dissolve in tears of blue.

 

You taught me to love the universe

and to accept any destiny of planetary

inhabitant, shepherd of phantom vicuñas

throughout foreign cities where nobody

rushes to assist a wounded star

that drowns in a puddle.

 

Ecuador , you made me vegetal and telluric,

solidary to all that lives,

humble as a vessel of fertile shadow.

I am desolate and abrupt as the cordillera,

deep as a cave of Inca 's treasures.

In my interior dozes a lake upon a crater.

My forehead is a landscape of rainy highlands.

My heart is a thirsty cactus

that begs the charity of dew.

 

Ecuador , I come back to you with my outfit of "prioste"*

to dance upon your green bosom,

to dance until I die

listening the beating

of your old heart of pimento and adobe.

I strike with the hand the century old harp

awakening the music in its coffin of dust

and the old god of thunder.

 

Give me your welcome of dew,

your great embrace green

oh mother crowned by ice and hummingbirds!

Show me the path to the lost mine

that guards the origin's deep metals.

Give me your magic plants, your prodigious balsam

and the memorable amulet of stone

where the sun has marked its watchful signs.

 Jorge Carrera Andrade

* "Prioste": steward of a brotherhood. In Ecuador , the one who sponsors a public celebration

TRANSLATED BY J. ENRIQUE OJEDA

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