National Endowment for the Arts Joins Mexican Partners in Launch of Bilingual Poetry Anthologies and Book Tour

Elsa Cross

Elsa Cross was born in Mexico City in 1946. She is the author of 20 books of poetry including Jaguar, inspired by ancient sites and symbols of Mexico, and Espirales, which features selected poems published from 1965 to 1999. Her more recent books form a trilogy: Los sueños (Elegías), Ultramar (Odas), and El vino de las cosas (Ditirambos). Among other awards, she has received the Premio Nacional de Poesía Nacional Aguascalientes and the Premio Internacional de Poesía Jaime Sabines. Ms. Cross holds a Ph.D. in philosophy and is a professor of Philosophy of Religion at Mexico's National Autonomous University.

From The Lovers of Tlatelolco
                           For Teresa Franco

Indifferent to the shadow that covers them,
the young lovers murmur
                       or stay silent,
while the night grows over the ruins,
bolts down the plinths of the temples,
the inscriptions.

And over there, the urn
with two skeletons embracing
in their dusty deathbed,
beneath the crystal where the flowers
                       Of an offering are drying.

(Translated by Sheena Sood)

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