The Sea Turtle/ La Tortuga de mar

(dedicated to José Roberto Bermúdez Pérez)

                                             Stretching his neck
                                             the turtle waits too...
                                             the year's first day

                                             (Kobayashi Issa, tr. by David G. Lanoue)

Through the night a deluge

like Deucalion's or Noah's--

wind wreaking havoc

on the corrugated roof,

torrential rain flooding

the street.

In morning calm of the beach

a huge and magnificent

sea turtle, prone and stranded

on the sand, gray-green

and motionless like

intricately carved stone,

waiting patiently for Fu Xi

to read the cracks on her back

and inaugurate the new universe.

E. A. Costa 19 December, 2015 Granada, Nicaragua

La tortuga de mar

(Dedicado al estimado José Roberto Bermúdez Pérez)

                                             Estira el cuello la tortuga--
                                             ella también está esperando
                                             el primer día del año

                                             (Kobayashi Issa, tr. EAC from Lanoue's version)

Por la noche un diluvio

como los días de Deucalión o Noé,

con viento que causa estragos

en el techo corrugado

y lluvia que inunda la calle.

En la calma de la mañana

una tortuga de mar magnífica

y enorme, prona sobre la arena,

del color gris-verde e inmóvil

como la piedra minuciosamente tallada,

espera pacientemente a que Fu Xi

lea las fisuras de su carapacho

e inaugure el nuevo universo.

tr. E.A.C.

____________________________________________

N.B: Fu Xi or Fu-Hsi (伏羲), counted as the first of the

Three Sovereigns by the Chinese, according to one account,

invented the Eight Trigrams (pa-kua),which are the basis

of the I-Ching, observing the back of a turtle that

emerged from a river. Both Deucalion and Noah,

merely incidentally, were preceded many centuries

by the story of Utanapishtim in the Epic of Gilgamesh,

who rescued all life on earth from the Deluge

in his great ark--a story itself preceded by Sumerian

references as well.