La penitencia del mago / José Antonio Ramos Sucre

The Magician’s Penitence

     I received numerous warnings of celestial origin when I began to initiate myself in an irreverent science. They were dissuading me from following the demand of truths superior to the fragility of man, and threatening me with the loss of happiness the same day I had it within reach and with the expiatory prolongation of my days.
     Proud meditation had rapidly impaired my organism, anticipating the signs of old age.
     I saw in the ruin of my health the final warning of an indignant power.
     I regained my strength retiring to the solitude of an estate, defended by cliffs and ditches. From there I departed later on, in search of new impressions, to a kingdom of traditions and ruins. And, under a shattered portico, I found an adolescent woman, with ecstatic eyes.
     After frequenting her placid manner so often, I healed from the previous anxiety, enjoying a promise of well-being.
     One afternoon I referred my past arrogant curiosity to her.
     My words alarmed her imagination: they ratified shapeless fears of dangers glimpsed or dreamed during her withdrawn childhood. That fright began the abolition of her thought and was the stimulus of a long agony.
     I continued ahead when the coming of the fatal threats began. I was looking for a pleasant spot where I could pay the rest of the irrevocable sanction and await the deferred terminus of my days.
     I came across this country submerged in nocturnal silence. I chose to edify my retreat the shade of this jungle, a tapestry unfolded at the foot of the mountains.
     Above the jungle and without reaching the mountain heights, a few birds of fatigued wings occasionally fly.




La torre de Timón (1925)




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