Claire Kageyama-Ramakrishnan
Claire Kageyama-Ramakrishnan nació en Santa Mónica y se crió en Los Ángeles, EE.UU. Recibió su licenciatura en Inglés de la Universidad de Loyola Marymount en Los Angeles, obtuvo una maestría en poesía de la Universidad de Virginia, donde fue Henry Hoyns Fellow, y completó su maestría en literatura en la Universidad de California en Berkeley. En la Universidad de Houston era una Cambor Fellow y obtuvo un doctorado en la literatura y escritura creativa. Es una instructora a tiempo completo en el Houston Community College, Campus Central. Vive en Houston con su marido, Raj, un científico especializado en la investigación del VIH / SIDA en el Baylor College of Medicine, y sus tres gatos.
Sigue creciéndole el pelo y lo dona para crear pelucas para pacientes con cáncer.
Bear, Diamonds and Crane
by Claire Kageyama- Ramakrishnan
Claire Kageyama-Ramakrishnan: El peso de los nombres (The Weight of Names)
EL PESO DE LOS NOMBRES
La noche en que se suicidó mi primo
las mujeres de nuestra familia no tocaron el teléfono.
Lo único en lo que podía pensar era en las venas hinchadas
de sus manos, en la perilla que afeitaron los amortajadores,
en los imperceptibles puntos que le dieron bajo el cuello.
Estaba amaneciendo cuando los aviones pasaron atravesando el horizonte.
La sirenas atronaban en Sepúlveda como ofreciéndole a mi primo
una despedida. Mi abuelo se sentó y dijo:
caminará sobre las nubes,
hacia los muertos… Hoy entiendo
las supersticiones de las mujeres, su miedo
a que los muertos devolvieran la llamada
y a mi primo, el único hijo
a quien correspondía el deber de llevar
el apellido de mi abuelo.
De Bear, Diamonds and Crane
Versión de Juan Fernández Rivero
https://sevencrossways.wordpress.com/2014/07/
THE WEIGHT OF NAMES
The night my cousin killed himself
the women in our family would not touch the phone.
All I could think of were the collapsed veins
on his hands, the goatee the morticians shaved off,
the faint stitches they sewed under his neck.
It was dawn when planes streaked across the horizon.
Sirens blared down Sepulveda as if to bid my cousin
farewell. My grandfather sat and said—
He would walk above the clouds
up to the dead… Today I understand
the women’s fears and superstitions
about the dead calling them back—
about my cousin, the only son
who was supposed to carry out
my grandfather’s name.
1969
Early morning breakfast.
Scrambled eggs and chopsticks.
A yellow dog howls
down
La Grange on the west side
of Los Angeles.
A new generation
survives.
The grandparents are Issei.
The parents, Nisei.
The children are third to wear
their lineage.
Bear, Diamonds and Crane
From Shadow Mountain
Terzanelle: Manzanar Riot
This is a poem with missing details,
of ground gouging each barrack’s windowpane,
sand crystals falling with powder and shale,
where silence and shame make adults insane.
This is about a midnight of searchlights,
of ground gouging each barrack’s windowpane,
of syrup on rice and a cook’s big fight.
This is the night of Manzanar’s riot.
This is about a midnight of searchlights,
a swift moon and a voice shouting, Quiet!
where the revolving searchlight is the moon.
This is the night of Manzanar’s riot,
windstorm of people, rifle powder fumes,
children wiping their eyes clean of debris,
where the revolving searchlight is the moon,
and children line still to use the latrines.
This is a poem with missing details,
children wiping their eyes clean of debris—
sand crystals falling with powder and shale.
From Shadow Mountain
6. ONE QUESTION, SEVERAL ANSWERS
Where did your father live?
House on Federal, City of Angels.
Where did your father live?
Horse stall at a racetrack.
Where did your father live?
Near the aqueduct, in a man-made desert.
Where did your father live?
By a pear tree.
With pears, ripe pears from that tree.
Where did your father live?
Block 25.
Where did your father live?
With thin strips of tarpaper.
Pot under his straw mattress.
Where did your father live?
Waiting in line to use the latrines.
Waiting in line at the mess hall.
Waiting for his parents.
Where did your father live?
The Desert Chapel.
Where did your father live?
With his brothers,
transplants—Joshua trees.
Where did your father live?
In his mother’s heart.
Where did your father live?
Barrack 12, Unit 3.
Where did your father live?
With 5 strand barbs.
With windstorms and bitterbrush.
With years of snowmelt, glacial erasure.
From Shadow Mountain
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