Nadia López García
& Coline Ferrant (translator)
SACRED WOMAN
YAA II ÑÀ’AN
[Tu'un Savi]
Ñà’an kù’ù, ñà’an nikanchii,
ñà’an saa;
ntakóó nta’áku ra tsito na´an
ñuu ra ntii.
Ntakuatu yo ora matzanu ra patzanu,
kuun ñu’ú
nuu káka, ntuchinuu
kunchee ra niì
yoo kusu ana.
Ká’an tsi sutsa vixi, ruda ra tuyutsa,
ká’an tsi yaa ii kusu
antivi ra yuku.
Ñà’an tachi, kaki tsá’a káká ta´vi yoo
ra káki kunchee ichi ñu´ú.
MUJER SAGRADA
[Spanish]
SACRED WOMAN
[English]
Woman of herb, woman of the sun,
bird woman;
raise your hands and care for the times
of life and death.
Pray for us and for ours,
wash the soil
we tread, the eyes
that watch over us and the blood
that sleeps within our hearts.
Talk to the copal, to the rue, and to the ocote,
talk to the sacred that sleeps
in the sky and on the mountain.
Wind woman, make an offering for us
and look after the fate of the world.
Mujer de hierba, mujer de sol,
mujer pájaro;
levanta tus manos y cuida los tiempos
de la vida y la muerte.
Reza por nosotros y los nuestros,
limpia la tierra
por donde caminamos, los ojos
que nos miran y la sangre
que duerme en nuestros corazones.
Habla con el copal, la ruda y el ocote,
habla con lo sagrado que duerme
en el cielo y la montaña.
Mujer viento, haz ofrenda por nosotros
y vela por el destino del mundo.
Nadia López García is a bilingual poet – Tu'un Savi (Mixtec, an indigenous language spoken in the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca) and Spanish. She has received several prizes, including the Nahual Prize for the Cultural Promotion of Oaxaca (2024), the Luis Cardoza y Aragón Mesoamerican Poetry Prize (2021), and the Cenzontle Prize for Literary Creation in Indigenous Languages (2017).
Coline Ferrant is an Assistant Professor in Social Development & Policy at Habib University (Karachi, Pakistan). She holds a Ph.D. in Sociology from Northwestern University and Sciences Po.