Epsilon Kappa, St. John’s Chapter of Sigma Delta Pi, the National Hispanic Honor Society,
celebrates its 50th Anniversary on campus in a series of events.
A bilingual literary journal, Entre Rascacielos, now in its 23 volume, which has served as a stepping board to promote creative writing in Spanish on and off campus. Dr. Marie-Lise Gazarian, moderator of St. John’s Chapter and Vice President for the Northeast of Sigma Delta Pi, the National Hispanic Honor Society, is the Director of the Graduate Program in Spanish. She is known for her televised interviews with Hispanic writers as well as her live programs with students.
Induction Ceremony and dinner, along with the presentation of the 23 volume of Entre Rascacielos, the journal of creative writing published by Epsilon Kappa. It will be followed by poetry reading by students, alumni and guest poets.
Dalmatas y ratas
por Mónica Sarmiento Archer, New York 2013
La humanidad amasa el mundo
dando una forma disforme,
con un toque de naranja y verde
el amanecer de prisa corre.
Entre una brisa nórdica y gris
nos dan las 3.50 de la rojiza madrugada
el túnel que conduce al norte,
es sombrío, como el infierno lúgubre del Bosco
Por las aceras me acompañan
sombras de perros dálmatas,
paridos en el tiempo,
por los escupitajos de aquellos que el día saludan.
Pisos de sombras masticadas,
huellas de presión, angustia a toda prisa
es el gran perro dálmata, de la manzana entre dos ríos.
Dónde conviven dos mundos, entre gentíos
Que se abalanzan sobre la veloz-voraz multitud
Para los que están en el túnel, el olor y el color
es el marrón y pálido azul de nueva york.
Sillones de color madera petróleo ahora descolorido,
no por los que descansan en ellos,
sino por los que duermen, amanecen y mugen la aurora,
al paso de las horas, que yacen en las pinceladas del tiempo.
Acompañados de ratas cercanas, familiares
casi humanas son nuestra compañía
en las madrugadas new yorkinas,
el olor verdoso del amanecer,
se percibe húmedo y cálido.
Un sudor ahogante se desprende de quien llega
a convivir en esta ciudad.
Quien es un new yorkino en la tierra de todos?
Es diferente? Es universal?
No es de aquí, no es de donde nació.
Es del flotante mundo
donde enraizamos con nostalgia
la existencia del fututo universo
Dalmatians and Rats
Humanity molds the world
Giving a deformed shape,
with a touch of orange and green
Dawn runs fast.
Between Nordic and gray breeze
gives us the blood red dawn
the tunnel that runs north,
mournful, gloomy, bleak, inferno of Bosco
Follow me on sidewalks
Shadows of Dalmatians,
parturition time,
for those that spit, they who greet the day.
Floor chewed by shadows
pressure, hastily distresses
Dalmatian, large dog, an apple between two rivers.
Where two worlds coexist among multitudes
They pounce on the fast-insatiable horde
For those in the tunnel, odor and color
A brown and pale blue New York.
Oiled wood chairs, color now faded
not by those who rely on them, but for those who sleep,
bellowing; dawn after dawn
the passing hours, lying in the brushstrokes of time.
Rats accompanied by family
our company is almost human
New Yorkers at dawn,
green smell of dawn,
Perceived humid and warm.
A choking sweat
Emerges from those that get to live in this city.
Who is a New Yorker in the land of all?
Different? Universal?
Not here, not where he was born.
The floating world
where wistfully rooted
the existence of the future universe
Mónica Sarmiento Castillo
New York, 2013
