Poetry International Poetry International
Poem

Carlos Obregón

Silence runs over all things

                                             (Cloister)



Silence runs over all things,
hand burning in the shadow, pure fountain.
The river hardly sounds through the foliage,
the water brief in its quiet talk,
the hours brownish-grey, the summer fled.
Slow, the day folds up like a  bird
when the ankle-length psalm lights every
wax candle and in the language of the rites,
the cisterns keep the chaste echo
of the wind and the centuries. The shore
of the voice was stripped of every
vestige of  bonfires and vessels.
Time wails broken in the arches, wails,
time of the cloister and prayer of the ogive.
Among pillars and golden ears,
the minute hands of the rain
trace and sing the torn song
that lulls the rose and bathes memory.  
Exile was the voice from the towers:
Only this space remains which is absence,
an impalpable flowering of ashes.

Silence runs over all things

                                             (Claustro)



Se recorre  el silencio en cada cosa,
mano ardiente en la sombra, fuente pura.
El río apenas suena entre la fronda,
el agua breve en un hablar callado,
las hojas pardas y el verano huido.
Lento se pliega el día como un ave
cuando el salmo talar enciende cada
cirio y en el lenguaje de los ritos,
las cisternas guardan el eco casto
del viento y de los siglos. La ribera
de la voz fue despojada de todo
vestigio de fogatas y bajeles.
El tiempo gime quebrado en los arcos,
tiempo de claustro y oración de ojiva.
Entre pilares y espigas doradas,
las diminutas manos de la lluvia
trazan y cantan la canción transida
que arrulla la rosa y baña el recuerdo.
Exilio fue la voz desde las torres:
Solo queda este espacio que es ausencia,
floración impalpable de cenizas.
Close

Silence runs over all things

                                             (Cloister)



Silence runs over all things,
hand burning in the shadow, pure fountain.
The river hardly sounds through the foliage,
the water brief in its quiet talk,
the hours brownish-grey, the summer fled.
Slow, the day folds up like a  bird
when the ankle-length psalm lights every
wax candle and in the language of the rites,
the cisterns keep the chaste echo
of the wind and the centuries. The shore
of the voice was stripped of every
vestige of  bonfires and vessels.
Time wails broken in the arches, wails,
time of the cloister and prayer of the ogive.
Among pillars and golden ears,
the minute hands of the rain
trace and sing the torn song
that lulls the rose and bathes memory.  
Exile was the voice from the towers:
Only this space remains which is absence,
an impalpable flowering of ashes.

Silence runs over all things

                                             (Cloister)



Silence runs over all things,
hand burning in the shadow, pure fountain.
The river hardly sounds through the foliage,
the water brief in its quiet talk,
the hours brownish-grey, the summer fled.
Slow, the day folds up like a  bird
when the ankle-length psalm lights every
wax candle and in the language of the rites,
the cisterns keep the chaste echo
of the wind and the centuries. The shore
of the voice was stripped of every
vestige of  bonfires and vessels.
Time wails broken in the arches, wails,
time of the cloister and prayer of the ogive.
Among pillars and golden ears,
the minute hands of the rain
trace and sing the torn song
that lulls the rose and bathes memory.  
Exile was the voice from the towers:
Only this space remains which is absence,
an impalpable flowering of ashes.
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Gemeente Rotterdam
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Stichting Van Beuningen Peterich-fonds
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