I am a river, going down over wide stones, going down over hard rocks ... I am a river, descending with greater fury, with greater violence, whenever a bridge reflects me in its curves. ... I am a river, a river. Sometimes I am tender and kind. I slide smoothly through fertile valleys. I let the cattle and the gentle people drink as much as they want. ... But sometimes I am wild and strong. Sometimes I have no respect for life or death. Cascading in furious waterfalls, I beat those stones again and again, I smash them into interminable pieces. ... Then my fury turns peaceful and I become a tree. I seal myself up like a tree and I turn silent as a stone and I go quiet as a thornless rose. ... The hour will come when I will have to disperse into the ocean, ... I will have to silence my luminous song, I will have to hush how I babble a hallo to the dawn of each day, I will wash my eyes with the sea. That day will come, and in those immense seas I will no longer see my fertile fields, I will never again see my green trees, my neighbourly breeze, my clear sky, my dark lake, my sun, my clouds, I will see nothing, except that immense blue heaven where everything is dissolved, in that vast expanse of water ... ~Javier Heraud, translator Timothy Allen.
Posted on: Wed, 02 Oct 2013 06:37:12 +0000