Cristina Peri Rossi is an Uruguayan writer who was awarded the Cervantes Prize in 2021. She was born in Montevideo in 1941 and has been devoted to literature for more than 50 years. She is one of the most outstanding writers in Spanish and her work includes a wide variety of narrative works, poetry, essays and journalistic articles.

Yesterday among papers

I found an old photograph of your twenties.

I knew then

that I would have loved you before

my love became the past

and I loved your university smile

your enthusiastic youth

the happy transparency of your glance

your languid dresses on your legs

your illusions

your desire to change the world and the genders

your desire for justice

your rebellion of roles

your endless enjoyment of tongues

the strength of your gender rage

rebellious and modern in sixty-eight.

My love became the past

and soared through the days and years

sailed in an ark on a ship

to the origins of time

where all love is birth.

Header Image:

Portrait of Cristina Peri Rossi. Source: bbc.com