Tuesday, April 06, 2010

Jorge Argueta - Cancion De Mango/Mango Song

CANCION DE MANGO/MANGO SONG
by
Jorge Argueta


CANCION DE MANGO


Detrás la casita
Pintada de muchos colores
Y techo de lámina
Hay un árbol
Muy
Muy grande de mango

Los mangos
Los verdes
Son ácidos
Y los amarillos
Saben a miel

Por las mañanas
Las ramas del árbol
Se llenan de pájaros
Y se arma
Ayyyy señor
Que gran fieston

El árbol muy
Muy grande de mango
Detrás la casita pintada
De muchos colores
Y techo de lámina
Balila
Esta bailando

El árbol muy
Muy grande de mango
Detrás la casita pintada
De muchos colores
Y techo de lámina
Canta
Esta cantando

El árbol muy
Muy grande de mango
Detrás la casita pintada
De muchos colores
Y techo de lámina
Ya no es árbol
Ahora es canció
MANGO SONG

There is a tall
Tall Mango tree
Behind the tin roof
Colorful houses

The mangos
The green ones
Are sour
And the yellow
So sweet

In the mornings
Bird all colors
Fill the tree
And there is
What a party
In the branches of the tree

The tall
Tall tallllllll
Mango tree
Behind the tin roof
Colorful house
Dances
Is dancing

The tall
Tall tallllllll
Mango tree
Behind the tin roof
Colorful house
Sings
Is singing

The tall
Tall talllllll
Mango tree
Behind the tin roof
Colorful house
Is not a tree any more
Now is a song

© 2010 Jorge Argueta. All rights reserved.

Jorge Argueta has won numerous awards for his books of bilingual poetry, including the Américas Award for Children's and Young Adult Literature. His background - he's a native Salvadoran and Pipil Nahua Indian who grew up surrounded by love in a house with dirt floors before leaving his civil war torn country to come to the U.S. in 1980 - lets him draw on themes and topics that are far afield from what I can draw on... yet his use of language and images and his point of view enable me to connect with his poetry completely.

Whether he's writing about nature or the contrasts between countries or food - he is writing a series of cooking poem books, the first of which Sopa de fijoles/Bean Soup was a Junior Library Guild Selection in 2009 - I can honestly say that his poetry makes me wish I could read Spanish so I could appreciate each poem for the first time twice. I'm truly excited to have Jorge Argueta here at GottaBook as part of 30 Poets/30 Days.

Yesterday gave us Move Out! by Carole Boston Weatherford. Tomorrow... Susan Marie Swanson with Wonders. For more on 30 Poets/30 Days and ways to follow along, please click here.

10 comments:

tanita✿davis said...

Stumbling along in my one-quarter-of-high-school-Spanish way reminds me that for kids who have dual language classrooms and are a little farther along than I am, these are a real treat. Not only do they get a great poem, but a feeling of mastery of new vocabulary. I'm a big fan of dual language poetry...

...an inexplicably, I now want a mango.

laurasalas said...

I don't even like mangoes, but this made me want a sweet one, and a party to go with it. Adore that last line: Now is a song. Sigh.

Kate Coombs said...

Hey Greg, typo alert--"Signs" is supposed to be "Sings" in the 5th stanza. Very beautiful stuff, thanks!

Greg Pincus said...

Thanks, Kate. I was so busy wanting a mango, you see....

holly ayala said...

lovely poem! i've actually had the privelege to see this mango tree in jorge's hometown. it is enormous!

congratulations jorge!

Carol Grannick said...

I have to say, it was thrilling to find that I could read this lovely poem in Spanish. The only problem was the absence of mangoes in my home right now...Going shopping.

Amy L V said...

Oh how blessed are the bilingual, to see the world in two ways. And we are lucky to have these poems. Thank you! Congratulations, Greg, on your NCTE write-up today. http://lists.ncte.org/t/2611173/695168/14020/0/

jama said...

Love mangoes, this poem, and Bean Soup! Now, more than ever, I wish I knew Spanish!

Anonymous said...

Thank you for posting this poem. It was so cool we all want mangoes!

from Ms. Nisman's fifth grade homeroom class the "Rice Owls"

Anonymous said...

I really like this poem I am one of the kids in Ms.Nisman's 5th grade class I think this poem is cool