El lapidario / José Antonio Ramos Sucre

The Lapidarist

The feeling of rhythm was guiding the woman’s actions and discourse. Dante would have pointed out the value of the magic figures had he critiqued the dates of her birth and death.
     Her ashes came back from exile in a secular country. Love dallied, from the taciturn ship, a branch of white lilies in the sea of funereal waves.
     I was sighting from a height the arrival of her relics and the escort of mourners and I abstained from taking part in the mourning.
     I have drawn by chisel strokes a secret sign on the face of a volcanic stone, respected amidst the coastal erosion and a neighbor to the port of return.
     The sign understands my name and that of the deceased and has been sculpted with the exquisiteness of an elaborate letter. I have invented it to awaken in newcomers, who trust they will draw the meaning, an ineffable yearning and inevitable discontent.




Las formas del fuego (1929)




{ José Antonio Ramos Sucre, Obra completa, Caracas: Biblioteca Ayacucho, 1989 }