Poetry International Poetry International
Poem

Carlos Obregón

DESTROYED DISTANCE XII

Stranger: this is the passion of the angel:
to awake on the shore of the instant,
solitary among the words and the stones.
When only the tree of night exists,
what exists is enough for us
and time is the towers that wait facing the sea
for the nocturnal exile of your travels,
for the silence of the cloister.

These things are his voice, those hours that speak
with the Summer sun,
returning in the evening to their hard and true name
as the violence of the wind or the sea that invades us
returns in the ears.
Here is the time of the hands
renewed at night when the word dies.
Listen: in the grass, the sanctity of the world
and the questions sing today of the solitude of each step.

To live is to be his body, so that the gaze travels in its distance
like an aimless bird among the rocks
and then goes, exiled, and beyond the skin,
from the towers, from the sea as far as the angel
to be the route of the wind,
to go away and to err in the silence that peoples us.
Stranger: the noise of the wood is the power of just one instant,
the birth of the voices that speak to you.
It is the desert that inhabits itself: its solitude is ours.

DISTANCIA DESTRUIDA XII

DISTANCIA DESTRUIDA XII

Extranjero: esta es la pasión del ángel:
despertarse en la ribera del instante,
solitario entre las palabras y las piedras.
Cuando sólo existe el árbol de la noche,
nos basta lo que existe
y el tiempo son las torres que enfrente al mar esperan
el exilio nocturno de los viajes,
el silencio del claustro.

Su voz son estas cosas, estas horas que hablan
con el sol del verano,
retornando en la tarde a su nombre duro y verdadero
como retorna en los oídos la violencia del viento
o el mar que  nos invade.
He aquí el tiempo de las manos
renovado en la noche cuando la palabra muere.
Escucha: entre la hierba, la santidad del mundo
y las preguntas hoy cantan la soledad de cada paso.

Vivir es ser su cuerpo, que la mirada viaje en su distancia
como una ave sin rumbo entre las rocas
y luego irse, exiliado, y más allá de la piel,
desde las torres, desde el mar hasta el ángel
ser la ruta del viento,
alejarse y perderse en el silencio que nos puebla.
Extranjero: el ruido del bosque es el poder de un sólo instante,
el nacimiento de las voces que te hablan.
Quien se habita es el desierto: su soledad es nuestra.
Close

DESTROYED DISTANCE XII

Stranger: this is the passion of the angel:
to awake on the shore of the instant,
solitary among the words and the stones.
When only the tree of night exists,
what exists is enough for us
and time is the towers that wait facing the sea
for the nocturnal exile of your travels,
for the silence of the cloister.

These things are his voice, those hours that speak
with the Summer sun,
returning in the evening to their hard and true name
as the violence of the wind or the sea that invades us
returns in the ears.
Here is the time of the hands
renewed at night when the word dies.
Listen: in the grass, the sanctity of the world
and the questions sing today of the solitude of each step.

To live is to be his body, so that the gaze travels in its distance
like an aimless bird among the rocks
and then goes, exiled, and beyond the skin,
from the towers, from the sea as far as the angel
to be the route of the wind,
to go away and to err in the silence that peoples us.
Stranger: the noise of the wood is the power of just one instant,
the birth of the voices that speak to you.
It is the desert that inhabits itself: its solitude is ours.

DESTROYED DISTANCE XII

Stranger: this is the passion of the angel:
to awake on the shore of the instant,
solitary among the words and the stones.
When only the tree of night exists,
what exists is enough for us
and time is the towers that wait facing the sea
for the nocturnal exile of your travels,
for the silence of the cloister.

These things are his voice, those hours that speak
with the Summer sun,
returning in the evening to their hard and true name
as the violence of the wind or the sea that invades us
returns in the ears.
Here is the time of the hands
renewed at night when the word dies.
Listen: in the grass, the sanctity of the world
and the questions sing today of the solitude of each step.

To live is to be his body, so that the gaze travels in its distance
like an aimless bird among the rocks
and then goes, exiled, and beyond the skin,
from the towers, from the sea as far as the angel
to be the route of the wind,
to go away and to err in the silence that peoples us.
Stranger: the noise of the wood is the power of just one instant,
the birth of the voices that speak to you.
It is the desert that inhabits itself: its solitude is ours.
Sponsors
Gemeente Rotterdam
Nederlands Letterenfonds
Stichting Van Beuningen Peterich-fonds
Ludo Pieters Gastschrijver Fonds
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