Entre los eslavos / José Antonio Ramos Sucre

Among the Slavs

The immemorial church fit under the shade of an oak tree. I admired its golden silver altar, Byzantine beauty. I registered the chorus and the sculpted holm oak furniture.
     Some unforgettable exequies were carried out there. The retinue of a few men in mourning was bringing forward a young man’s coffin. They were each carrying lamps.
     The council of elders had gathered to decide the reestablishment of an ancient ceremony, in a sign of tribulation.
     The most beautiful virgin of the place was riding the deceased’s horse and presiding the funeral. They had been impassioned since childhood.
     The party was set to finish outside the village, in the cemetery, and I observed her from afar. The virgin abandoned herself to the trot of her mount and I saw her disappear on an ideal road, of celestial vagueness.




El cielo de esmalte (1929)




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