The story of Afro-Caribbean poet Norberto James Rawlings is one of migration, loss, adaptation, and reinvention that goes back for generations. Most well-known for “The Immigrants,” a poem about a Black minority community of Anglophone sugar plantation workers, Rawlings’s poetry has been performed, muralized, and celebrated in the Dominican Republic and beyond. While the principal themes in Norberto James’s early work is a concern for political justice and collective well-being, over time his work transcended the notoriety of his most famous poem. Bringing this selection of his work into English for the first time, this volume will expand the entry points into one of the most important Caribbean writers yet to punctuate the mainstream.

Norberto Pedro James Rawlings (1945–2021) was a poet of Afro-Caribbean descent from the Dominican Republic. In the 1960s, Norberto moved to Santo Domingo to finish high school until being kicked out at the age of 19 for his political activities. Soon after, Norberto joined the rebel forces as civil war broke out in the Dominican Republic. His growing political militancy sent him into political exile under the guise of foreign study at the University of Havana, Cuba where he earned his Licenciatura in Language and Literature. His first book of poetry from 1969, Sobre la marcha, contains one of the most iconic Dominican poems of the twentieth century, “The Immigrants.” The books of poetry to follow in later years, beginning with La Urdimbre de Silencio, offer a wide-ranging reflection on the world beyond the island of his birth, voiced with the poignant longing of an expatriate.

Elizabeth C. Wellington published a book of literary criticism on the works of Federico García Lorca with Peter Lang and an award-winning work of fiction, Circus Girl: A Novel. She is the official translator for two prominent Dominican writers, René Del Risco Bermúdez and Norberto James Rawlings. She has contributed essays, stories and poetry translations to numerous literary journals and anthologies, The Breadloaf Quarterly, The Literary Olympians (Ford-Brown) and The United Nations Society of Writers. She received the Robert Fitzgerald Literary Translation Prize from Boston University. She continues to honor requests from scholars, artists, and international institutions for English translations of the poetry of Norberto James Rawlings.

Biography: Norberto James Rawlings
 

Translator’s Note
 

Selected Poems from On the March (Sobre la marcha, 1969)

Los inmigrantes /The Immigrants

I On the march we build the song (Sobre la marcha vamos construyendo el canto)

II On the march we overcome anguish (Sobre la marcha vamos venciendo la angustia)

III On the march we further the sinking (Sobre la marcha propiciamos el hundimiento)

IV Amid ambition (En medio de esta ambición)

V Sadness precedes us. (La tristeza nos precede.)

VI Whenever we try to sing (Siempre que intentamos cantar)

VII Whenever someone takes us in (Siempre que alguien nos cobija)

VIII We who dreamt your open countryside (Los que te soñamos paisaje amplio)

IX Every step taken on the march (Cada paso dado en esta marcha)

XI This march will only come to an end (Sólo habrá final para esta marcha)

XIV I know it, and you know it too (Yo sé y lo sabes tú también)

XV Zinc roof full of holes (El agujerado techo de zinc)

XVI I am not just another foreigner (Yo no soy un extranjero más)

Poem 1 It's so hard for me (Qué difícil se me hace)

Poem 3 After the dead season (Después del tiempo muerto)

Poem 4 If in the midst of the fire (Si en medio del fuego)

Silence for the Song (Silencio para el canto)

The Price (El precio)

One by One (Uno a uno)
 

Selected Poems from The Province in Revolt (La provincia sublevada,1972)

Yo no tuve libros

I Had No Books

Altas columnas de garzas

High Columns of Herons

III Here burn the salts of your presence. (Aquí arden las sales de tu presencia )

V It Will Never be Necessary (No será jamás necesario)

VII If you could perceive (Si pudieras percibir)

VIII It’s as if you’d come back tired (Es como si regresaras cansado )

X I insist on claiming for us (Insisto en reclamar para nosotros)

XIV From my father I inherit (De mi padre conservo igual manera)

XV You will never know (Quizá no sepas nunca)

XVIII The calamity of not agreeing (La calamidad de no estar de acuerdo)

When a Man I (Cuando un hombre I)

When a Man II (Cuando un hombre II)

V You Rise Each Day (Te levantas cada día)
 

Selected Poems from Living (Vivir, 1981)

A un niño vietnamita

To a Vietnamese Boy

Vedado

Vedado

New Arrivals (Recién llegados)

Recovered from the Past (Lo recuperable del pasado)

Who will rescue the broken cry (Quién ha de rescatar el grito)

November (Noviembre)

Practicing Tenderness (Ejercicio de ternura)

On the Banks of the Seine (A orillas del Sena)

Embers (Pavesas)

Habit of Dreaming (Hábito de sueños)

In Passing (Pasajera)
 

Selected Poems from Lessons for an Absence (Lecciones para una ausencia)

Guardo cielo en los ojos

I Hold Heaven in My Eyes

De tarde en tarde

From Afternoon to Afternoon

Edges of Dreams (Las márgenes del sueño)

My Own History (Historia propia)

Every Night (Cada noche)

From Your Hair (De tu pelo)

Nostalgic Memories Also Change Places (Las nostalgias también cambian de lugar)

Dark Map of My Back (Oscuro mapa de mi espalda)

Gains and Losses (Ganancias y pérdidas)

Sunday (Domingo)

Cold Stare (Mirada seca)
 

On the Threshold of Silence (La urdimbre del silencio, 2000)

Genealogía

Genealogy

Señal de identidad

Sign of Identity

Priorities (Prioridades)

Sparks Street (Sparks Street)

Struggle for Light (Voluntad de luz)

Via Crucis (Via Crucis)

I Forget Nothing (No olvido nada)

Tower of Desire (Torre del deseo)

In These Waters (En estas aguas)

Who Deflects Our Column of Light? (¿Quién desvia nuestra columna de luz?)

Mast of Wind (Asta de vientos)

Internal Conflict (Pugna interna)

Foreigner (Extranjero)

What Tedium Covers the Cracks in Your House? (¿Qué tedios recubren las rendijas de tu casa?)

Right Hand (Mano derecha)

Sketches for the Poem (Apuntes para el poema)

Tree (Árbol)

Beechwood Road (Beechwood Road)

Thinking the Rose (Pensar la rosa)

Portrait (Retrato)

Sketches of Your Sadness (Esbozos de tu tristeza)

Just a Memory (Simple Recuerdo)

Untitled (Sin título)

Statues (Estatuas)

Stone of Night (Piedra de la noche)

Tree Where I Played (Árbol de mis juegos)

Gardening Practice (Ejercicio de jardinería)

Pike, New Hampshire (Pike, New Hampshire)

Antonio Álvarez (Antonio Álvarez)

Stamped Seal (Sello de agua)

Visible Fatigue (Cansancio visible)

Gardener (Jardinera)

Always Near (Siempre cercanas)

In Your Hair (En tus cabellos)

(Re)possession ((Re)posesión)

Something in Me (Algo en mí )

I Knew the Sea (Conocía el mar)

On the Threshold of Silence (La urdimbre del silencio)

Before the Door (Ante la Puerta)

Impromptu (In promptu)

La Giraldilla (Giraldilla)

Winter (Invierno)

Every Hand (Toda mano)

Green Air (Aire verde)

Kite (Chichigua)

What Do I Do Now? (What Do I Do Now?)

Pedestrian (Transeúnte)

If You Look in the Mirror (Si se miran los espejos)

Black Mirrors (Negros espejos)

Family Album (Álbum familiar)

Landscape (Paisaje)

Still Air (Aire anclado)

My Pillow (Mi almohada)