Poetry International Poetry International
Poem

Aurelio Arturo

Silence

Heads of hair and confused dreams  
cover the bodies like muffled mosses  
in the night, in the embroidering shade  
of deep velvets and oblivion.  

Gold flickers the sky like beaks  
of birds that swoop down in flocks,  
black warps inlaid with living gold,                 
over that great silence of corpses.         
  
And thus, alone, saved from the shade,  
next to the library where the murmur           
of aged trunks wanders, I hear something like  
the limitless clamour of a valley.  
  
Harsh drum amid the night, it sounds     
when all are dead, when all  
in the dream, in death, fall into   
a silence full and deep as a scream.       
  
Let the dream of silky wings haunt me,  
haunt me like a laurel of dark leaves  
but oh the great hurricane of the deep silences,  
of the clamorous silences.  
  
And next to that bivouac of old books,  
while the still night that imitates
a grove moves shade and silence,    
I look for you in the prodigious depths,  
fiery, voracious, chained word.

Silencio

Silencio

Cabelleras y sueños confundidos  
cubren los cuerpos como sordos musgos  
en la noche, en la sombra bordadora  
de terciopelos hondos y olvidos.  
  
Oros rielan el cielo como picos  
de aves que se abatieran en bandadas,  
negra comba incrustada de oros vivos,  
sobre aquel gran silencio de cadáveres.  
  
Y así solo, salvado de la sombra,  
junto a la biblioteca donde vaga  
rumor de añosos troncos, oigo alzarse  
como el clamor ilímite de un valle.  
  
Ronco tambor entre la noche suena  
cuando están todos muertos, cuando todos,  
en el sueño, en la muerte, callan llenos  
de un silencio tan hondo como un grito.  
  
Róndeme el sueño de sedosas alas,  
róndeme cual laurel de oscuras hojas  
mas oh el gran huracán de los silencios  
hondos, de los silencios clamorosos.  
  
Y junto a aquel vivac de viejos libros,  
mientras sombra y silencio mueve, sorda  
la noche que simula una arboleda,  
te busco en las honduras prodigiosas,  
ígnea, voraz, palabra encadenada.  
Close

Silence

Heads of hair and confused dreams  
cover the bodies like muffled mosses  
in the night, in the embroidering shade  
of deep velvets and oblivion.  

Gold flickers the sky like beaks  
of birds that swoop down in flocks,  
black warps inlaid with living gold,                 
over that great silence of corpses.         
  
And thus, alone, saved from the shade,  
next to the library where the murmur           
of aged trunks wanders, I hear something like  
the limitless clamour of a valley.  
  
Harsh drum amid the night, it sounds     
when all are dead, when all  
in the dream, in death, fall into   
a silence full and deep as a scream.       
  
Let the dream of silky wings haunt me,  
haunt me like a laurel of dark leaves  
but oh the great hurricane of the deep silences,  
of the clamorous silences.  
  
And next to that bivouac of old books,  
while the still night that imitates
a grove moves shade and silence,    
I look for you in the prodigious depths,  
fiery, voracious, chained word.

Silence

Heads of hair and confused dreams  
cover the bodies like muffled mosses  
in the night, in the embroidering shade  
of deep velvets and oblivion.  

Gold flickers the sky like beaks  
of birds that swoop down in flocks,  
black warps inlaid with living gold,                 
over that great silence of corpses.         
  
And thus, alone, saved from the shade,  
next to the library where the murmur           
of aged trunks wanders, I hear something like  
the limitless clamour of a valley.  
  
Harsh drum amid the night, it sounds     
when all are dead, when all  
in the dream, in death, fall into   
a silence full and deep as a scream.       
  
Let the dream of silky wings haunt me,  
haunt me like a laurel of dark leaves  
but oh the great hurricane of the deep silences,  
of the clamorous silences.  
  
And next to that bivouac of old books,  
while the still night that imitates
a grove moves shade and silence,    
I look for you in the prodigious depths,  
fiery, voracious, chained word.
Sponsors
Gemeente Rotterdam
Nederlands Letterenfonds
Stichting Van Beuningen Peterich-fonds
Prins Bernhard cultuurfonds
Lira fonds
Versopolis
J.E. Jurriaanse
Gefinancierd door de Europese Unie
Elise Mathilde Fonds
Stichting Verzameling van Wijngaarden-Boot
Veerhuis
VDM
Partners
LantarenVenster – Verhalenhuis Belvédère