Luis Cernuda
(1904-1963)
from Spanish
Once I was alive
A pillar of fire, a moon in spring,
A glistening ocean, wide eyed.
I searched for my thoughts;
I thought, as in a drowsy dream at dawn,
What desire tells us in adolescence.
I sang, I soared,
One day I was light itself
Pulled into flame,
Like a gust of wind
Dispersing shadow
I fell into darkness
Into the hungry world.
I've already had my life.
"Yo Fui"from Donde Habite El Olvido in La Realidad Y El Deseo (1964),
published by Joe Bruchac The Greenfield Review (Winter/Spring, 1983)
Beginning:
after Luis Cernuda
Where to begin
in time
with shadow
waiting for beginning?
You are so young
in your hazy question
with unsolved lightning
in your hand.
Resolve to live the question,
turn away gray fire;
begin
with dark beginning,
always new.
New Year's Day, 1983