Kibrá i Huntá

Anthony Sarkiss MY ‘21

Papiamentu

Broken and Stuck Together

Kibrá i Huntá

This piece is about the dissonance that people of more than two cultures associate with the question, “Where are you from?” This goes hand-in-hand with the feeling of one’s multicultural identity being fragmented and put back together. This is why at the end of this poem, the persona admits to being made of different, wildly contrasting materials.

Ta hopi komún pa mi wòrdu puntrá:

Kòrdami, fo’i unda bo ta?

Ami ta yu’i Kòrsòu,

Mi isla stimá.

Un otro parti dimi ta respondé:

Un pida so b’a kompartí

Bo ta arabir tambe

Ei’nan asina bo ta pèrtenesé.

Te ku otro pueblo bisami:

Merikano bo ta

Pero mi raísnan ta grita:

“Bo ta kibrá i huntá”

Mi ta un obra di man,

Konstruí for di salu,

Piedra, awa, i palu.

It’s often that I get asked:

Remind me, where are you from?

I’m from Curaçao,

My beloved island.

Another part of me answers:

You’ve only shared one part,

You are Arab,

There too you belong.

Until another people utters:

You are American

But my core bellows:

“You are fragmented and pieced together”

I am a mosaic

Built of salt,

Rock, water, and wood.