To Gabriela Mistral
Chilean Poet
flying poem: LA PAJITA
by Gabriela Mistral
translation by claudia raddatz

this is how young i was when i learnt a poem for the first time in my life, one of Gabriela's poems ... i only learnt La Pajita a couple of days ago ... when we are young we are all flowers of wonder ... i dedicate this page to all the children in the world that unlike me don't have a happy childhood. All my love to the children in detention centres in OZland, not the land of OZ but the land of Mr Howard and Mr.Ruddock!  Gabriela i know that in the paradise of Poets where you are, you are crying because there is no more evil in this world than to make children suffer.

 


   

 

This was a girl of wax

but not a girl of wax

she was a sheaf in the field and she was not a sheaf

instead the stiff flower of wonder

she was neither a flower

she was a small sunbeam

that hit a glass window

she was not a sunbeam but

a small sheaf in my eyes she was

come and see how i have lost

in this big tear my truthful party!

Roma, Perulla

S. Diego,
S. Francisco,
Detroit, Atlanta,
California, New Y.,
Washington

Paris, Lyon

Melbourne, Sydney,

Adelaide, Brisbane

Zaragoza, Vitoria,
Madrid

Bogota, Medellìn,
Bucaramanga, Cucuta,
Barrancabermeja,
Barranquilla, Cartagena,
Cali, Sta. Maria,
Valledupar

Berlín, Wupertal,
Colonia

Campina, S. Paulo

Londres, Liverpool

Berna, Zurich

Nueva Delhi

/DIV>