Poets of the World: Quito Nicolaas, Aruba

Bo Aruba 138Quito Nicolaas (Aruba), studied Political sciences and International law and is currently a law-consultant. He has dedicated himself to writing and published ten books; six volumes of poetry, three novels and a volume of short-stories. His poetry had also appeared in different magazines and anthologies in Albania, Brazil, China, Argentina, Aruba, Curaçao , The Netherlands and Afghanistan, while his articles, essays, book reviews and interviews are published in different journals and magazines. He has delivered many lectures concerning Aruban and Caribbean literature.

He writes mainly in Papiamento (a Creole language derived from Spanish), English and Dutch.

This is the English translation done by the author of the Wikipedia text in Dutch:
Quito Nicolaas from Wikipedia

Here are two poems in English. Others are in the Spanish section.

Malvinas
The rumination of a life that has never
been lived, though he could see without
telling his perception after.

In my sleep
I see you appear
every night.

In the past
I admired you
in all angles
during the day.

Isolated from each other
grew a desire
at night.

But for once
let’s forget the commitment
in the afternoon.

I made love to you
two shadows of our bodies.
in the morning
(translation by the author)

© Quito Nicolaas, Atardi di Antaño, 2005

***
Sand sculpture
The light that shines forgets the
functionality everyone attributes to it.

long time ago,
I sculptured you with
my imagination.

soaked with my fingers
taking on a shape
ready to be changed

your figure created
another figure
made of sand.

a body to brag about

that shakes and answers
when spoken to.

a sculpture that provided
me a why
with a reason to return.
© Quito Nicolaas From: The afternoon in the past (2005)