Un gran sueño / Ramón Palomares

A Great Dream

a)

My wife has been those savage
distances
whose doors are extermination;
the birds I loved sang right here
and the girl I loved died, amid burning valleys;
I played at being young
here
where no friendship for past centuries existed.

b)

Toward the turbulent stars my country explodes
and chases its own happy gifts
at the intersection of heroes.
And it is assassinated at the places of its flag
like a man in a strange place
–looking for a coin, looking for a sweet coin
rolling through the multitudes.

c)

If he has spoken
we have lost his words.
And if he had laughed or cried
we would have lost his laugh or his wail.
After all we sustain an august funereal chamber
exposed to laughter and weeping.




Honras fúnebres (1965)




{ Ramón Palomares, Antología poética, Caracas: Monte Ávila Editores, 2004 }