In our fifth lunchtime poetry video, Lora V. Krasteva reads Imagine Kindness in Spanish
As part of this week’s Coventry Welcomes festival, we’ve been working with Ethiopian poet Biruk Kebede, who has written an original poem in honour of the occasion.
Titled Imagine Kindness, the poem has been written in Biruk’s native Amharic, which you can hear him reading along with an English translation here. Lunchtime poetry sessions will continue throughout the week, with new translations shared at 12.30pm each day.
In today’s video, you can hear Lora V. Krasteva (Executive Producer of With One Voice and Artistic Director of Global Voices Theatre) read a version of the poem in Spanish. Below the video, you can also read the essence of the poem in English and Spanish. Find out more about our Coventry Welcomes programme here.
Imagine Kindness
by Biruk Kebede
When I imagined kindness and meditated on it;
Cuando me imaginé la bondad y medite en ella,
The flourishing of humanity
El florecimiento de la humanidad
Overwhelmed me with joy and hope.
Me estremeció con esperanza y felicidad
I saw a new paradigm in my imagination:
En mi imaginación vi un nuevo paradigma:
Love spreading around the world,
El amor extendiéndose alrededor del mundo,
The human race as one.
La raza humana unida
I saw kind hearts helping kind hearts
Vi corazones amables ayudando a otros
Regardless of difference, without discrimination,
Sin ensuciarse de diferencias, sin discriminar
All dividing gaps narrowed, filled and levelled.
Estrechando los surcos divisores, llenandoles y nivelando les
I saw justice spreading over all the world like a pandemic.
Vi la justicia extendiéndose alrededor del mundo con una pandemia
When we are conquered by love and bring salvation to others,
Cuando nos conquista el amor y les brindamos salvación a otros,
When we enable our ears to hear the crying of the poor,
Cuando hacemos que nuestras orejas oigan el llanto del pobre
When we open our eyes to the pain and suffering in the world,
Cuando abrimos nuestros ojos para poder ver el dolor y el sufrimiento del mundo
When there is no more war,
Cuando ya no hay guerras
When there is no more killing,
Cuando ya no hay muertes
When there is no more room for hatred,
Cuando ya no hay más espacio para el odio
When “we” replaces “I” and
Cuando “nosotors” reemplaza el “yo” y
We live together in love and harmony,
Vivimos juntos en amor y armonía
Then life will birth its meaning.
Entonces dará luz a su significado la vida
We must have compassion for ourselves.
Tenemos que tener compasión para nosotros mismos
We must be free from guilt.
Tenemos que ser libres de toda culpabilidad
For if our inner world is dark, how can we bring light to the world?
Porque , si nuestros mundo interior es oscuridad, como brindar luz al mundo?
When kindness grows from our thoughts
Cuando la bondad crezca de nuestros pensamientos
And roots deeply in our hearts,
Y se arraiga profundamente en nuestro corazones,
We will express it with kind words, followed by kind deeds.
La expresaremos con palabras y hechos bondadosos
An invisible enemy in this strange time
En este tiempo extraño un enemigo invisible
Gives us no choice but to distance,
No nos deja otra que distanciarnos
Unable to tend our loved ones in sickness and in death.
Sin poder atender en la enfermedad y en la muerte, a nuestros seres queridos
Too tiny for the eye, this virus
Demasiado pequeño para verlo, este virus
Is taking thousands of lives, infiltrating country, after country, after country…
Se lleva a miles de vidas, infiltrándose pais a pais …
And no border can stop its spread.
Ninguna frontera puede impedir su propagación!
But if we humble ourselves, it has a lesson to teach us:
Pero si somos humildes, tiene una lección que enseñarnos:
That kindness matters and
La bondad importa y
Caring for each other brings us close together.
Cuidándonos nos acercamos los unos a los otros.
Let us open our hearts to love,
Abramos los corazones al amor
Let distancing be only physical,
Dejemos que el distanciamiento sea sólo físico
And let us bind our spirits into one.
E unamos nuestros espíritus.