Lu Galante reading ‘La Extranjera’

“Agua”.

First it spluttered, then it flowed,

Then it thundered.

It took a while to train my tongue,

Now it thirsts

In a drought, empty of words.

I know the streets of Melbourne 

And when they gleam black after a midnight rain

Like mágico estoy en Buenos Aires again.

Pero yo no sé de los colectivos,

De donde vienen o a donde van.

Ríos tan grandes, que son como el mar.

No escucho los chistes, el humor, el doble sentido,

Pero a veces, siento un doble tiempo

De un baile de la tormenta

Skin cracked, red, suffering, 

Dry, dust hits sharp, shattering.

Land of creeks, dry but a trickle

The sun bites here.

The wind

Politely queries, 

Where do you return to?

I return to memories, golden blue.

A dozen different little beds and little homes,

Days my language ran strong

Like horses before a storm.

Now I breathe out 

Faded.

Porque yo no sé de los colectivos,

De donde vienen o a donde van.

Y no conozco mi propia lengua,

Cuando este chorrito

Va a encontrar el mar.

Glossary and translation

La Extranjera: The Foreigner

agua: water

mágico estoy en Buenos Aires: magic I’m in Buenos Aires

Pero yo no sé de los colectivos,…de la tormenta: 

But I don’t know the busses,

Where they come from or where they’ll go.

Or those rivers so large, they are like the ocean.

I don’t hear the jokes, the humour, the double meaning.

But sometimes, I feel a double time

Of a dance of the storm

Porque yo no sé de los colectivos…Va a encontrar el mar: 

Because I don’t know the busses,

Where they come from or where they’ll go.

And I don’t know my own tongue,

Or when this trickle,

Will find the ocean.

Lu Galante is a young songwriter and poet currently finishing high school in Melbourne. She was born in Buenos Aires to an Australian mother and an Argentinian father and moved to Melbourne at the age of six. Since then, her bilingualism and dual culture have become a contentious part of her identity. Battling her gradual loss of Spanish has become symbolic of her need for cultural connection, and a rich topic in her creative writing. 

She currently writes music about being young and female with her band The Vovos. Lu hopes to pursue her art and writing into the future. You can find her @lu.ncheon on Instagram.