Reflexión / Fernando Paz Castillo

Reflection

I never thought
I’d reach such heights
on the road of years.

When I look back
I’m surprised
by the distance of familiar things
left behind on the long path
travelled.

Seeing so many mysteries
that oblivion has also fabricated,
that were once my present moment
I ask myself: Are you happy?

And, truly!... I don’t know how to respond
to my concern,
to my anguish of having been
and of not being.

Because man
who is always fear and adventure,
will never be able to know at what point on the road
his present stood.

That’s why in his words,
even the most intimate,
even the most trusted,
he will always feel
the salt of bitterness.

We learn to die
when we’re born;
yet, when we start to approach
the moment expected
for so long,
we realize we’ve learned nothing
and our thoughts are filled,
as if we were children,
by an enormous sobbing.




Encuentros (1980)




{ Fernando Paz Castillo, Poesía, Caracas: Biblioteca Ayacucho, 1986 }