Cereal / José Antonio Ramos Sucre

Cereal

     The farmers stopped to listen to the noise. They had arrived from the depths of the horizon, each on their own path, and were crowning a plateau. They found themselves disconcerted.

     The dogs were fixedly staring at the floor and their panting was clearing away the dust.

     The murmur was growing at each moment and resembled that of a city precipitated to its ruin.

     The farmers frighten off and kill a sanguinary bird, tormenting a bull who has escaped death, wounded by the sacrificial axe.

     The sun emanates the saffron veil, a summer effect, and presides the salvation of the bloodied victim.

     The farmers observe the respect of life and abhor their neighbors’ practices. They conjecture their loss amidst a portent.

     The farmers embark on the road to their village and reserve for the one favored by the sun a fertile shore.




El cielo de esmalte (1929)




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