Poem
Eduardo Gómez
REQUIEM WITHOUT TEARS
Your death began a month agoand from the first day
children played in the park like always
and your room was rented
to a big and wild workman
and everything seems the same on the streets
even though your face grows ever paler in recollection.
When darkness surrounds me at night
I concentrate in anguish on reviving you
Closing my eyes and contracting my fists I reconstruct your face
but you just float at the end of a garden lit by the moon
and it is all in vain because you don’t say a single word
and your semblance quivers and vanishes
like when we touch the landscapes
reflected on still water.
People work
Talk
pass by my side
and their eyes slide over me indifferently.
I think they are cruel
but then I remember they didn’t know you
they don’t know I’m the bearer of dreadful news
and even if they had known you and loved you
how could they do anything other than live their lives?
Our world begins young
our world only loves
the dead who have given more life to it.
Because of this you will not escape oblivion
because of this it is so difficult to hold onto you
because of this it is so easy
to fill the void you left behind.
Your life was innocent
And your death does not shake.
It is only a smile that fog erases little by little
a melodious echo lost in dark corridors
where we cannot follow you.
© Translation: 2008, Nicolás Suescún
REQUIEM SIN LLANTO
REQUIEM SIN LLANTO
Hace un mes comenzó tu muertey desde el primer día
los niños juegan en los parques como siempre
y tu habitación fue alquilada
a un obrero grandote y parrandero
y todo parece igual en las calles
aunque tu rostro palidece cada vez más en el recuerdo.
Cuando la oscuridad me rodea en la noche
me concentro angustiado en revivirte
reconstruyo tu rostro cerrando los ojos y crispando los puños
mas solamente flotas al final de un jardín iluminado por la luna
y es en vano porque no pronuncias palabra
y tu imagen tiembla y se borra
como cuando tocamos los paisajes
que el agua quieta refleja.
Las gentes trabajan
Conversan
pasan a mi lado
y sus ojos resbalan sobre mí indiferentes.
Pienso que son crueles
pero luego recuerdo que no te conocieron
que no me saben portador de la tremenda noticia
y aunque te hubieran conocido y amado
acaso podrían hacer algo que no fuese su vida?
Nuestro mundo comienza a ser joven
nuestro mundo solamente ama
aquellos muertos que le han dado más vida.
Por eso no escaparás al olvido
por eso es tan difícil retenerte
por eso es tan fácil
llenar el vacío dejado por ti.
Tu vida fue inocente
y tu muerte no estremece.
Es apenas una sonrisa que la niebla va esfumando
un eco melodioso que se pierde en oscuros corredores
a donde ya no podremos seguirle.
© 1962, Eduardo Gómez
From: Restauración de la palabra
Publisher: Antares-Tercer Mundo, Bogotá
From: Restauración de la palabra
Publisher: Antares-Tercer Mundo, Bogotá
Poems
Poems of Eduardo Gómez
Close
REQUIEM WITHOUT TEARS
Your death began a month agoand from the first day
children played in the park like always
and your room was rented
to a big and wild workman
and everything seems the same on the streets
even though your face grows ever paler in recollection.
When darkness surrounds me at night
I concentrate in anguish on reviving you
Closing my eyes and contracting my fists I reconstruct your face
but you just float at the end of a garden lit by the moon
and it is all in vain because you don’t say a single word
and your semblance quivers and vanishes
like when we touch the landscapes
reflected on still water.
People work
Talk
pass by my side
and their eyes slide over me indifferently.
I think they are cruel
but then I remember they didn’t know you
they don’t know I’m the bearer of dreadful news
and even if they had known you and loved you
how could they do anything other than live their lives?
Our world begins young
our world only loves
the dead who have given more life to it.
Because of this you will not escape oblivion
because of this it is so difficult to hold onto you
because of this it is so easy
to fill the void you left behind.
Your life was innocent
And your death does not shake.
It is only a smile that fog erases little by little
a melodious echo lost in dark corridors
where we cannot follow you.
© 2008, Nicolás Suescún
From: Restauración de la palabra
From: Restauración de la palabra
REQUIEM WITHOUT TEARS
Your death began a month agoand from the first day
children played in the park like always
and your room was rented
to a big and wild workman
and everything seems the same on the streets
even though your face grows ever paler in recollection.
When darkness surrounds me at night
I concentrate in anguish on reviving you
Closing my eyes and contracting my fists I reconstruct your face
but you just float at the end of a garden lit by the moon
and it is all in vain because you don’t say a single word
and your semblance quivers and vanishes
like when we touch the landscapes
reflected on still water.
People work
Talk
pass by my side
and their eyes slide over me indifferently.
I think they are cruel
but then I remember they didn’t know you
they don’t know I’m the bearer of dreadful news
and even if they had known you and loved you
how could they do anything other than live their lives?
Our world begins young
our world only loves
the dead who have given more life to it.
Because of this you will not escape oblivion
because of this it is so difficult to hold onto you
because of this it is so easy
to fill the void you left behind.
Your life was innocent
And your death does not shake.
It is only a smile that fog erases little by little
a melodious echo lost in dark corridors
where we cannot follow you.
© 2008, Nicolás Suescún
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