Close Talking: A Poetry Podcast

Episode #118 The Altar - Humberto Ak'abal

01.23.2021 - By Cardboard Box Productions, Inc.Play

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Connor and Jack discuss a deceptively simple poem full of interwoven contradictions - Humberto Ak'abal's "The Altar." They discuss the multiple layers of linguistic conquest implicit in a poem that has moved from K'iche' to Spanish to English, the history of Guatemala and US involvement in the country's political affairs, and ponder the big questions posed by the poems little candles.

More on Ak'abal, here: https://www.akabal.com/

Read the poem in K'iche', Spanish, and English, here: https://www.akabal.com/poems/thealtar.html

The Altar

By: Humberto Ak’abal

The shadows

light their candles.

The night

is the altar,

the silence

is the prayer.

And just moments

before dawn,

with one little breath

the wind puts them out.

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