Why do this?

My father, José Luis Villamizar Melo, passed away in my home town of Cúcuta, Colombia, in August last year. The law and economics were Dad's profession, but literature, history and academia his passion. He wrote and published several books, articles and book chapters. The thing is that so many people have missed out on his work, particularly on his beautiful poetry, which he wrote in Spanish prior to the world wide web. So I thought, what a better way to keep Dad's legacy alive than to bring his writing beyond his world and share it with mine. That is why I am translating over 250 of my Dad's poems to English and publishing them here, one a day, Monday to Friday during 2011 (Dad, a family man, always believed that you shouldn't work on weekends).



Monday, February 7, 2011

The journey (El viaje)

Today is a special day.  As I write, one of the most amazing friends life has given me is crossing the Pacific Ocean to come to study in Melbourne for a year.  Yesterday, before she left Colombia to embark in her two day trip via Argentina and New Zealand she wrote on her Facebook status: “Nervous, tired, sad and happy at the same time”.  I know the feeling, I was about to do the same around this time ten years ago.  I am thankful that I did it.  I found a new horizon, the love of my life, beautiful people and a wonderful life.  I am sure you will shine Angela, and I'll be by your side.  Can’t wait to see you!  This is to you my friend, from my Dad’s book  Urgent Poetry (Poesía de Urgencia).

P.S.  By the way, I wish Caro, Monica, Alejandro and Titina could also come!   

The journey  (El viaje)

How to say good bye
and beyond words
to have the feeling
that it is real.
To paralyse the relationship of the ‘I’
with everything it loves.  To leave it.
To create emptiness
around a name,
to dismiss the time set aside
for friendship.
To silence the daily voices,
the ‘today’
in ‘yesterday’, only real
in memories.
To believe
that there will be a return
and it will be a fugacious
absence.
at 8:07 PM

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