AND GOD MADE ME WOMAN

AND GOD MADE ME WOMAN

By Gioconda Belli

Translated by Steven F White

And God made me woman.

With the long hair,

with the eyes,

the nose and mouth of a woman.

With curves

and folds

and soft hollows.

God carved into me a workshop for human beings.

Delicately wove my nerves

and carefully counted

and balanced my hormones:

composed my blood

and poured it into me

so that it would flow

through my entire body.

And so ideas were born,

dreams,

instincts,

everything that was gently created

with hammering whispers

and the drilling motion of love,

the thousand and one things that make me a woman every day,

that make me arise proud,

 when I get up

every morning,

and bless my sex.

Gioconda Belli is one of Nicaragua’s major political and intellectual voices, as well as one of the most important living poets of Latin America. Belli has also stood out for her fantastic novels, which have been bestsellers in different countries around the world.

The literature of Gioconda Belli is characterized on the one hand by the theme of feminism and eroticism and, on the other, its political activism. Her profound commitment to the revolutionary ideal of working together to create a fairer society is unquestionably at the heart of her writing, both poetry and fiction.

Belli is a multifaceted woman, a talented writer, journalist and feminist. Belli has been a woman sensitive to social injustices, defender and promoter of women’s rights in the Latin America region.

I couldn’t think of a better poem to celebrate 2020 International Women’s day and womanhood than this one