Nostalgia Doesn’t Flow Away Like Riverwater

By Irma Pineda and Wendy Call

A story of separation and displacement in two fictionalized voices: a person who has migrated, without papers, to the United States for work, and their partner who waits at home.

Nostalgia Doesn’t Flow Away Like Riverwater / Xilase qui rié di’ sicasi rié nisa guiigu’ / La Nostalgia no se marcha como el agua de los ríos is a trilingual collection by one of the most prominent Indigenous poets in Latin America: Irma Pineda. The book consists of 36 persona poems that tell a story of separation and displacement in two fictionalized voices: a person who has migrated, without papers, to the United States for work, and that person’s partner who waits at home, in the poet’s hometown of Juchitán, Oaxaca.

According to Periódico de Poesía, a journal based at UNAM (Mexico’s national university), when it was published in 2007, this book established Pineda “one of the strongest poets working in Zapotec, the [Mexican] Native language with the largest literary production.”

• Language: English
• Publisher: Phoneme Media
• Release date: Jan 16, 2024
• ISBN: 9781646052998

Book preview

Cover: Nostalgia Doesn't Flow Away Like Riverwater, Xilase qui rié di’ sicasi rié nisa guiigu’ by Irma Pineda

NOSTALGIA DOESN’T

FLOW AWAY

LIKE RIVERWATER

Xilase qui rié di’ sicasi

rié nisa guiigu’

La nostalgia

no se marcha como

el agua de los ríos

POEMS IN DIDXAZÁ

(ISTHMUS ZAPOTEC)

AND SPANISH

BY IRMA PINEDA

ENGLISH TRANSLATIONS

BY WENDY CALL

Phoneme Media, an imprint of Deep Vellum Publishing

3000 Commerce St., Dallas, Texas 75226

deepvellum.org · @deepvellum

Deep Vellum is a 501c3 nonprofit literary arts organization founded in 2013 with the mission to bring the world into conversation through literature.

Copyright © 2007 Irma Pineda

Translation copyright © 2024 by Wendy Call

Originally published as Xilase qui rié di΄ sicasi rieé nisa guiigu΄ = La nostalgia no se marcha como el agua de los ríos by Escritores en Lenguas Indígenas, México, D.F., 2007

First US edition, 2024

All rights reserved.

Support for this publication has been provided in part by grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Texas Commission on the Arts, the City of Dallas Office of Arts and Culture’s Arts Activate program, and the Moody Fund for the Arts.

Paperback ISBN: 9781646052783

Ebook ISBN: 9781646052998

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CONTROL NUMBER: 2023038196

Cover design by Sarah Schulte

Interior layout and typesetting by Andrea García Flores

PRINTED IN CANADA

CONTENTS

TRANSLATOR’S NOTE:

Carrying Words Across Borders: Poetry on/in Migration

I. MY HEART IN TWO

CHUPA LADXIDUA’ /DOS MI CORAZÓN

Your Suitcase

Ni chineu’ / El equipaje

Thorn

Ti guiichi / Una espina

Recollections

Guendaredasilú / Recuerdos

This Sadness

Nabana’ / La tristeza

Fear

Dxiibi / Miedo

Us

Laanu / Nosotros

This Path

Neza / Camino

Two Paths

Chupa neza / Dos caminos

In Your Heart

Ndaani’ ladxido’lo’ / En tu corazón

Doubt

Xizaa / Duda

When You Go

Dxi cheu’ / Cuando te vayas

I Will Return

Zabigueta’ / Volveré

II. ON THE PATH

LU NEZA /SOBRE EL CAMINO

[Too long the many sunsets of your absence

Ma ziula nga guca naa ca gubidxa zielu’ / Largos son los soles de tu ausencia]

[My feet won’t stop

Qui zabezadxi batañee’ / No se detendrán mis pies]

[A drop of salt on paper

Sidi riaba lu gui’chi’ / Una gota de sal sobre el papel]

[I set out from the south

Neza guete’ biaaxha’/Partí del sur]

[Our smile floats away

Cayé xquendaruxidxinu / Se va nuestra sonrisa]

[I traveled the path from the south

Neza guete’ bedandaya’ / Por el camino del sur he venido]

[The houses of your village have eyes

Ca yoo xquidxilu’ napaca’ lu / Las casas de tu pueblo tienen ojos]

[Many full moons have passed

Ma stale beeu’ gudi’di’ / Muchas lunas han girado]

[Since you left

De dxi zieu’ / Desde tu partida]

[The sky rains endless stars on me

Cundaa guibá’ stale beleguí luguia’ya’ / Me llueve el cielo su infinidad de estrellas]

[I hear the city’s roar

Rucaadiaga’ cabidxiaa guidxiro’ / Oigo el rugir de la ciudad]

[Nostalgia doesn’t melt like water underfoot

Xilase qui raca nisa xa ñee binni / La nostalgia no se hace agua bajo los pies]

III. THE DAY WILL COME

ZEDANDÁ TI DXI /UN