The Hermit’s Journey
I assisted the deer of prolonged age in its agony and gathered the bronze necklace, loosening it from its cervix.
The gentiles had attributed to the deer a prodigious longevity, as referred to in very learned writings, and Our Lord awakened through one of them the vocation of Saint Hubertus.
No one had been able to follow the trail of the deer of prolonged age. The humble and nameless blackberry bushes ceased tangling in front of me, the day I found him in his final hour. A few flowers fastened onto my monastic petticoat, sewing a fringe on it, and disturbed me with their beauty. I know how to defend myself from the enchantment of creatures.
I had in my hands the head of the decrepit deer and its ruin was manifested when I loosened from its cervix the antique necklace, of secret labor and astonishing effect, by which it would become invisible.
Once that garment of its strength was despoiled, it exhaled its life with a moan.
El cielo de esmalte (1929)
{ José Antonio Ramos Sucre, Obra completa, Caracas: Biblioteca Ayacucho, 1989 }
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