Poetry in Translation

The Poetry in Translation event is always a beautifully moving occasion. The tradition has been for ESL students to select a poem in their native language and to also read it, translated in English.

This year there were a number of students who composed their own verses. Isabel Pulido, a North County Campus ESL Level 4 student, shared this poem at the event:

Please Listen!!

By Isabel Pulido Ramon

An internal fight that continues struggling

On one side, the dreams and hopes

On another side, reality and dignity

Some of them think

That they have given us everything here

When part of the truth is

We have given half of our lives

Because the pain comes from remembering

That we do not belong here nor there

But we keep working

Leaving more of our heart

In what we do.

Working hard in the soil

That at one time was our ancestors

Now we have accepted

Is not ours

We are realizing that

What the land earns belongs

To those who work it.

There are those who believe

We are only made of straw

But I am here as the voice of

The worker: we are human.

Our spirit is divided

Between our love and our patriotism

And the search for a better life.

But through all of this

We still have not lost our roots

Our race will live on eternally.