One of my favorite pieces of Mormon literature is Citlalli Xochitiotzin’s 2019 short story or prose poem “TIEMPO una partícula” (“Time, a particle”). The piece, originally published as part of the Mormon Lit Blitz’s first multilingual contest, imagines how Jesus Christ’s Atonement pierces time and space. For me, the piece brought together the familiar agonies that fill the news and my social media feeds with the olive leaves of Gethsemane.
At the Global Mormon Studies conference in 2024, I got to meet Citlalli. She and I were on a panel with Rafael Vázquez (pen name R. de la Lanza) about Mormon literature in the Spanish language. Between sessions, she took me to see murals that depicted the sweep of Mexican history, often cast in terms of a Christian and proletarian suffering that gestures toward redemption. For Citlalli, that’s familiar ground. Her father, Desiderio Hernández Xochitiotzin, was a famous muralist from the state of Tlaxcala, who similarly brought historical and spiritual imagery into a shared imaginationscape.
She gave me a copy of her latest poetry collection, Fulgor de Alimentos, and shared a draft of a poem she’d recently written at and about the dedication of the Puebla Mexico Temple, called simply “Dedicación.” I also love an as-yet unpublished essay of hers, “Testimonio y Abejas,” which ends with her evoking the Book of Ether and an image of the taste of honey on the finger of the Lord.
This Christmas, I’d like to give you the gift of more Citlalli—a poem called New Beginnings. My Spanish is not very good, even when I have time to consult dictionaries. And there are doubtless allusions in the piece that escaped me—all I know from the Angelus prayer, for example, is the phrase, “Hail Mary, full of grace.” But I’m willing to share my attempt at an English-language rendering because to me, translation is a form of active listening, an expression of respect and love. Translation is an attempt to be nourished by what’s growing in another rich plot of ground in the Lord’s great vineyard.
— James Goldberg
Nuevos comienzos, poema opus 7.7
Despierto, son las 4 a.m, el sistema de facebook no se mueve con bots.
Pero estoy en el siglo XI? las fotografías son los temas de siempre!
El tiempo una postal: mentiras, a medias, mentiras tres cuartos, acarreos de la conciencia.
Yo, suelo despertar a cada paso: cada uno ve su mundo de acuerdo a su propia resurrección: libre quien comprende a Sísifo, y rompa el espejo de Narsiso.
Duele, posiblemente,
cada uno sabe de morir,
algunos mueren ciegos
otros intentan,
algunos más se afanan,
otros…llega la resurrección a gotas, duele, duele la agonía del ego!
Después de todo
la lucidez es un trayecto del viejo Jesus,
inmortal,
liviano,
perpetuo:
Cristo ojo niño inocente,
clamor en nuestros desiertos.
Cada uno construye su resurrección, día a día.
Las 5 a.m la oración del Ángelus, cada uno en su propia resurrección o muerte.
Bendecido día,
Dios ten piedad de mi vista,
permite reconocer la belleza
la bondad eterna, amen, 7 veces 7.
New Beginnings
(Poem Opus 7.7)
I wake up, it’s 4 a.m., and Facebook’s system is jammed to a standstill with bots.
But am in the 21st century, or the 11th? The themes of these photographs are the same as always.
Time, a postcard: lies, half-lies, three-quarters lies, the sedimentary burdens of conscience.
Me, I tend to awake at every step: each person sees their world according to their own resurrection: free is the one who understands Sisyphus, and breaks the mirror of Narcissus.
It may ache,
every one of us knows how to die,
but some die blind,
others make an attempt,
still others strive earnestly,
to others…resurrection arrives in drops
it aches, it aches, the ego’s agony!
After all, lucidity is the path of old Jesus,
immortal,
light,
perpetual:
Christ eye innocent child,
cry out in our wildernesses.
Every one of us builds his or her own resurrection, day by day.
At 5 a.m. the Angelus prayer, every one of us in his or her own resurrection or death.
Blessed day,
God have mercy on my vision,
allow me to recognize beauty,
eternal goodness, amen, 7 times 7.