First Voices
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Colors
Bird feathers were white, and white was the skin of animals.
Blue are those, now, that bathe themselves in a lake into which no river flows, or in which no river is born. Red, those that submerge themselves in the lake of blood spilled by a youth of the Kadiweu people. Those who fall down in mud have the color of the dirt, and those who seek heat from extinguished flames have that of ashes. Green are those that rub their bodies with foliage and white those who remain still.
Translation ©2023. Terence Clarke. All rights reserved.
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About Eduardo Galeano? click here. For a selection of Galeano’s books, click here. For my recent Substack piece that tells of Galeano, click here.
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