A Death in Cajamarca, Peru (Atahualpa, in Cajamarca ((in English and Spanish))
The Epic Poem:
A Death in Cajamarca, Peru
[Atahualpa, in Cajamarca]
Advance: This is a version, not a translation of any kind, on the incarceration and death of Atahualpa the Inca King of the Inca Empire, in the 16th century (Peru).
Atahualpa, enduring in Cajamarca
Greeted by De Soto, his free friend from Spain!
"Be Calm! These times will be tolerant to you."
By Riquelme, who is wearied with this place?
Unsatisfied with checkmate, looks upon Atahualpa
As simply detestable-blazing, bleak, uninviting,
And longs again to find himself in Spain,
After the embarrassment of defeat,
By the captive slave Atahualpa, Inca King
Who gave advice to Captain Hernando De Soto
And got inevitable checkmate?.
And friends and feast-saw more than all, its games-
This life seemed blank and flat. He slacks to rest
In its vast prison all alive with walls, listening
And quivering combatants with Inca robes-the air
Delighted by the roaring fermatas of men-
The sunlit canopy heaving overhead,
Inflamed and stained against its corded veins
And fluttering out its border with piercing testimony-
The wild warriors roaring from the pit below-
The wilder crowded soldiers from above
With one long yell that sends the startled blood
With thrill and sudden flush into the knees-
A hundred voices screaming-to the Inca King
Of Spanish horses galloping across the land-
The ring of swords, the sharp clashes of steel-
Live swords that spin in circles with bloody red-
Gall helmets flashing ‘neath their torrent hair-
A conjuring, prophetic God-to them
Worse than the furor-the eyes of Atahualpa
To the Peruvian Indians-doing nothing-
Their muscle strained-and then comes slavery;
"Abet!-that’s God’s will," says Atahualpa to his people!
"?tha
