The Anniversary
The gentlemen, aged by the attentions of government and the necessities and fatigue of the encampment, climbed the porphyry staircase. They had disseminated themselves so as to move forward with greater idleness. Each one had chosen his confidant.
They were delaying their steps on purpose and anticipating a reverential voice. They posed on a terraced roof dampened by the night dew and remained within sight of a pale horizon.
The king had convened them for a tribute to the memory of his daughter, the first year of her death. He had no other descendants and agonized imagining his kingdom’s future.
The gentlemen doubted when recalling the pensive virgin. They had buried an empty coffin.
They returned their thought to the king’s wedding, on an unforgettable date. A lunatic had assaulted him in the nuptial dance hall and denied his name amidst the torment.
El cielo de esmalte (1929)
{ José Antonio Ramos Sucre, Obra completa, Caracas: Biblioteca Ayacucho, 1989 }
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