Two-Blooded
translated from the Spanish by Katherine M. Hedeen & Víctor Rodríguez Núñez
I am a descendent of stillness
and sailors still in motion,
a brew of saltpeter and blackbird song.
In just one bloody wound collide
impatience and calm.
If I fall silent and words ripen
it’s the voice of an olive tree in its quiet seed.
I am the hesitation between hideout and sword,
the yellow in all the world’s traffic lights.
In the future I’ll serve you coffee and worship
you—like an icon—in a picture frame.
A dos sangres
Vengo de una ascendencia de quietud
y marineros todavía en movimiento;
mezclo el salitre del mar con el canto de un mirlo.
En una sola herida de sangre colisiona
la serenidad y el desasosiego.
Si enmudezco y maduran las palabras
es la voz de un olivo en su callada semilla.
Soy la incertidumbre entre el escondite o la espada,
luz amarillenta en los semáforos del mundo,
quiero servir tu café en el futuro o adorarte
—como a un icono—en un portarretrato.
Copyright © 2025 by Rolando Kattan. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on September 17, 2025, by the Academy of American Poets.
“Rolando Kattan offers readers an unexpected vision of contemporary Latin American poetry. Through the vital lens of Honduras and the crucial lens of Kattan’s Palestinian heritage, we hear, too, the voice of a seeker, moving beyond the confines of national and ethnic identities. Ultimately, for Kattan, poetry is a place of encounter: a way to access and reconcile with the past, a way to grapple with the present. As translators, we are excited to bring this stellar poetic voice from a country that has been completely disregarded as a space for poetry—both within Latin America and beyond it—to an English-language readership.”
—Katherine M. Heeden
Rolando Kattan
