by Rosabetty Muñoz | Translated by Elena Barcia
Mouth of the River
Woe to the body slit from top to bottom
stripped of its child
in an emergency operation
(on the kitchen table).
Woe to the woman who buries a knitting needle
or a celery stalk or a hawthorn branch inside her.
Woe to the one who drinks a cup of bleach.
Woe to the one who lays face down
while her friend jumps on her.
Woe to the mouth of the river that contains her
and that water muddied forever.
Those who turn away in horror
should bow and weep
before the girl with the swollen belly.
They should feel pain.
This is no time to hold your tongue.
Rosabetty Muñoz is a Chilean poet, author of eleven books, and the recipient of multiple awards. Muñoz considers herself part of Chile’s “ethnocultural movement,” composed of writers who foreground the distinctive cultures of the regions they inhabit−in her case, the island of Chiloé, off the southwestern coast of Chile. In her books, Muñoz uses the island’s history and culture to tackle universal themes like authoritarianism, gender inequality, globalization, and the ravages of climate change.
Elena Barcia is a film and literary translator born and raised in Los Angeles. She has translated hundreds of movies from Hamlet to Harry Potter, and collaborated with directors like Martin Scorsese, Alfonso Cuarón, and Alejandro Iñárritu on the subtitle translations of their films. Her translation of Miguel de Unamuno’s classic novel Niebla (Fog) was published by Northwestern University Press in 2017. Her poetry translations have appeared in The Harvard Review, Asymptote, and Exchanges, a Journal of Literary Translation. In both 2021 and 2022 she was a finalist for Poetry International’s Summer Chapbook competition, and her translation of Chilean poet Malú Urriola’s book Cadáver exquisito (Exquisite Corpse; Cuarto Propio, 2017) was published by Valparaíso Editions USA in June of 2023.