Mario Bojorquez [Mexico]

 

The eye of time
 
The coin of time burns in my hand
a metal circle without a face
it burns all that I ignore of myself
all that no one suspect of me
 
The coin rolls down
reaches your tired feet
you take it and smile artlessly
 
It’s not a dream for you all this
you grab the coin and think
of my hair of my eyes
 
Someone’s telling a lie inside my eyes
someone hurts my heart
within.
 
(From “Hablar Sombras”/ “To Speak Shadows 2013,         
 Translation by Mario Licón Cabrera
  Vagabond Press, Sidney, 2017)
 
 
 
To say the shadow
 
To speak from the shadow; be the shadow;
the fast flux where darkness
grows without body, subjugated.
To speak against the shadow of what we’ve said,
come back from the shadow of wakefulness;
go so high, so deep, timeless
that the fierce return won’t be needed.
To say the shadow, to say what we’ve left,
the remains of voice and sighs,
the reckless shadow with no accent
no pause, emotionless, pure shadow
that will beget more shadows on its way.
To speak, say, speak the shadows means
to get close to things, their bodies,
be a constant reflexion, a mirror
of a virtual language which is never true.
 
(From “Hablar Sombras” / “To Speak Shadows 2013,         
 Translation by Mario Licón Cabrera
  Vagabond Press, Sidney, 2017)
 
 
 
Desert sun
 
We moved along the uncontrollable space of the landscape
behind the blue mountains was South
We traced an imaginary circle
where all men and things and days
stood one before the other
recognizing their faces and beloved signs
 
I was the first to lift the feet in dance
then the whole circle was spinning with the sun
“It’s the desert moving us”—I said
and the music sounded louder in our bodies.
 
(From “Hablar Sombras” / “To Speak Shadows 2013,         
 Translation by Mario Licón Cabrera
  Vagabond Press, Sidney, 2017)
 
 

 
Author’s Bionote:
 
*Mario Bojórquez was born in Los Mochis, Sinaloa, Mexico, on March 24, 1968. He is a poet, essayist, and translator. His literary work has earned the Bellas Artes Literature Awards: National Poetry Prize Aguascalientes (2007) and National Literary-Essay Prize José Revueltas (2010), the Alhambra Prize for American Poetry (Spain, 2012), the Premiul Literature Fara Frontiere (Romania, 2016), the Letras de Sinaloa Prize (2023), and the City of Burgos Poetry Prize 'Antonio L. Bouza' (Spain, 2024). His most recent poetry collections are “Diván de Mouraria” (1999, and Italian translation by Gianni Darconza, 2016), “Pretzels” (2005 and 2015), “El deseo postergado” (2007, 2018, and Italian translation by Emilio Coco, 2016), “El Cerro de la Memoria” (2009),“Y2K” (2009), “Hablar sombras” (2013), “Memorial de Ayotzinapa” (2016 and five further editions), “Arqueología del Fuego Nuevo” (2025), and “El amor y la furia” (2025). His early books were brought together in “El rayo y la memoria” (2012), “Aquí todo es memoria” (2016), “Memoria de lo vivido” (2019 and 2026), and El “fuego es mi nombre exacto” (2021). He has received the following lifetime achievement honors: the “Distinction Príncipe y Poeta Tecayehuatzin de Huexotzinco”, the Ignacio Rodríguez Galván Medal, the Cardinal Medal, the Klísthenes Medal from the Demos Aigaleo of Athens (Greece), and the Vicente Huidobro Medal for the achievement in Spanish Language from the Huidobro and Iberoamerican Foundations for the Arts (Chile–Peru, 2025). His poetry has been included in national and international anthologies, and translated and published in Portugal, Spain, Argentina, Colombia, Venezuela, Uruguay, North Macedonia, Ecuador, France, Italy, Lithuania, Latvia, Romania, Greece, the United States, China, and Russia. He has published eleven books as a translator of poets from Catalan, Portuguese, French, Italian, and English into Spanish. He is a recognized expert and translator of Fernando Pessoa and his friends. He has been a member of Mexico's National System of Art Creators (SNCA) since 2007. He currently directs the International Poetry Encounter of Mexico City and serves as Editorial Director of Visor Libros México, Valparaíso México and Círculo de Poesía Ediciones.