Poem
Alberto Vélez
XXXV
What were you looking at then, when the lightWas not light but death throes?
Your old age was a landslide:
First your shoulders fell off,
Then your arms, and then your dreams.
There was nothing left of you.
How did you live?
What pain sustained you?
We resemble each other in one thing:
The stubborn decision to endure
Without scandal the wrath of God.
© Translation: 2011, Laura Chalar
XXXV
XXXV
¿Qué mirabas entonces, cuando la luzNo era luz sino agonía?
Tu vejez fue un alud:
Primero se te cayeron los hombros,
Después los brazos y por fin los sueños.
No quedó nada de ti.
¿Cómo viviste?
¿Qué dolor te sostuvo?
En algo nos parecemos:
En la terca decisión de soportar
Sin escándalos la ira de Dios.
© 2009, Alberto Vélez
Publisher: First published on PIW,
Publisher: First published on PIW,
Poems
Poems of Alberto Vélez
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XXXV
What were you looking at then, when the lightWas not light but death throes?
Your old age was a landslide:
First your shoulders fell off,
Then your arms, and then your dreams.
There was nothing left of you.
How did you live?
What pain sustained you?
We resemble each other in one thing:
The stubborn decision to endure
Without scandal the wrath of God.
© 2011, Laura Chalar
XXXV
What were you looking at then, when the lightWas not light but death throes?
Your old age was a landslide:
First your shoulders fell off,
Then your arms, and then your dreams.
There was nothing left of you.
How did you live?
What pain sustained you?
We resemble each other in one thing:
The stubborn decision to endure
Without scandal the wrath of God.
© 2011, Laura Chalar
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