Ourora (Dawn)
- Ourora [Dawn]
| ora ku e promé rayonan di solo | when the first rays of sunlight |
| ta kuminsá sipel den skuridat | break through the darkness |
| un bientu spantá ta hui pasa | a frightened wind flees |
| muhando yerba ku su rosea anshá | moistening the grass with its anxious breath |
| un pa un kabritunan ta lanta | one by one the goats arise |
| kue kaminda pa mondi será | and take the path to the thick brush |
| nan gritu--un keho di hamber-- | their cries--hunger pangs-- |
| ta plama den serunan leu | reverberate in the distant hills |
| mi ta lanta fo’ i mi kama | I get out of bed |
| pa seka sodó di pesadia | to dry the sweat of my nightmares |
| i den bentana un chuchubi | while in the window a chuchubi |
| ta kanta hasi chèrchè | mocks in song |
| ku mi miedu di morto . . . | my fear of death. |
| [Papiamentu] |
Carel de Haseth, a native of Curaçao, is a pharmacist, and currently the Minister Plenipotentiary of the Netherlands Antilles in the Hague. In addition to five collections of poems (3 dagen vóór Eva, Berceuse voor teleurgestelden, Bida na koló, Poesia venená, and Zolang er kusten zijn), he has published a novella in Papiamentu, Katibu di shon, which was awarded the Cola Debrot Prize.
Brenda Hasham-Hopson, born in Kentucky, has lived in Curaçao for more than twenty years where she teaches history at the International School of Curaçao. A poet and freelance translator, she has translated scholarly essays and poetry, and contributes her own work to local poetry journals and travel magazines. She coordinated a bi-montly publication Tempu and is a founding member of the Institute for the Promotion and Study of Papiamentu.
