Poetry International Poetry International
Poem

Felipe García Quintero

you bring a bit of bread and some wine to feed the vigil

IV.

    you bring a bit of bread and some wine to feed the vigil in
the night of your soul.

    In the depths of your eyes you look at the hands that offered
up their bones to build the house and fill it with words.

    Meanwhile, the writing in the darkness grows like the flickering of
the flames, your heart keeps quiet; its tremor stops beating.

    Suddenly nobody exists anymore.

    We are alone and you only think of her. You give yourself up to
the wine of laughter and the bread of silence, and to your memories:
those thoughts that inflame your tongue and burn like the words that
consume you.

    And you want to die, and for that you write:

(1997)


V.

    one believes in writing. That writing is air, and that’s enough.

    But language inhabits the outdoors of the house, persists in human
gravity.

    Because writing is to be burdened with the procession of your life,
with the implements that do not fit into a different corner which are
not the days, that one after another are the void.

    Because death is to go and no more.

    And it is the will of love to die.

    Yes, the love of dying, the only writing:

(1997)


VII.

    remember, my soul, that we are going to die.

    It will be under the discursive rain brought by memories, that
which knots the hands to writing.

    Without complaining we will die. This will be the night and there
will be no other bed on which to die, because death is the grass of
the desire that feeds on the body.

    (and I look at the moon in the sky: a horse that bolts motionlessly)

    Remember that later, the sickle will come and we will be one in
the hands of the nocturnal shepherd:

(1997)


XIV.

    perhaps, and because of its end, these words say something.

    Already far from the world and from the hand that traces them, is
perhaps the road.

    Maybe, in some afternoon of another sky, these words will rise
and go about peacely, nameless in the new dust.

    Perhaps, because not having an end, for its end, these words say
something, and don’t ask for anything:

(1997)

you bring a bit of bread and some wine to feed the vigil

IV.

    traes un poco de pan y algo de vino para alimentar la vigilia
en la noche de tu alma.

    Al fondo de tus ojos miras las manos que ofrendaron sus
huesos para construir la casa y llenarla de palabras.

    Mientras, la escritura en la oscuridad crece con el parpadeo de
las llamas, tu corazón calla; su temblor cesa de latir.

    De pronto ya nadie existe.

    Estamos solos y sólo en ella piensas. Te entregas al vino de la
risa y al pan del silencio, y a tus recuerdos: estos pensamientos que
inflaman tu lengua y arden como las palabras que te consumen.

    Y quieres morir, y para eso escribes:

(1997)


V.

    uno cree en la escritura. Que la escritura es aire, y basta.

    Mas el lenguaje habita la intemperie de la casa, persiste en la
humana gravedad.

    Porque escribir es cargar con la procesión de tu vida, con los
enseres que no caben en otro rincón que no sean los días, que uno
tras otro son la nada.

    Porque la muerte es irse y ya.

    Y es la voluntad del amor el morir.

    Sí, el amor del morir, la única escritura:

(1997)


VII.

    recuerda, alma mía, que vamos a morir.

    Será bajo la lluvia discursiva que traen los recuerdos, la que
anuda las manos a la escritura.

    Sin queja moriremos. Esta será la noche y no habrá otro lecho
para morir, porque la muerte es la hierba del deseo que se alimenta
con el cuerpo.

    (y la luna en el cielo miro: caballo que inmóvil se desboca)

    Recuerda que más tarde, vendrá la hoz y seremos uno en las
manos del pastor nocturno:

(1997)


XIV.

    tal vez, y por su fin, estas palabras digan algo.

    Lejos ya del mundo y de la mano que las traza, pueda estar el
camino.

    Quizá, alguna tarde de otro cielo, estas palabras se levanten y
vayan por ahí en paz y sin nombre entre el polvo nuevo.

    Tal vez, porque no al fin, por su fin, estas palabras digan algo,
no pidan nada:

(1997)
Close

you bring a bit of bread and some wine to feed the vigil

IV.

    you bring a bit of bread and some wine to feed the vigil in
the night of your soul.

    In the depths of your eyes you look at the hands that offered
up their bones to build the house and fill it with words.

    Meanwhile, the writing in the darkness grows like the flickering of
the flames, your heart keeps quiet; its tremor stops beating.

    Suddenly nobody exists anymore.

    We are alone and you only think of her. You give yourself up to
the wine of laughter and the bread of silence, and to your memories:
those thoughts that inflame your tongue and burn like the words that
consume you.

    And you want to die, and for that you write:

(1997)


V.

    one believes in writing. That writing is air, and that’s enough.

    But language inhabits the outdoors of the house, persists in human
gravity.

    Because writing is to be burdened with the procession of your life,
with the implements that do not fit into a different corner which are
not the days, that one after another are the void.

    Because death is to go and no more.

    And it is the will of love to die.

    Yes, the love of dying, the only writing:

(1997)


VII.

    remember, my soul, that we are going to die.

    It will be under the discursive rain brought by memories, that
which knots the hands to writing.

    Without complaining we will die. This will be the night and there
will be no other bed on which to die, because death is the grass of
the desire that feeds on the body.

    (and I look at the moon in the sky: a horse that bolts motionlessly)

    Remember that later, the sickle will come and we will be one in
the hands of the nocturnal shepherd:

(1997)


XIV.

    perhaps, and because of its end, these words say something.

    Already far from the world and from the hand that traces them, is
perhaps the road.

    Maybe, in some afternoon of another sky, these words will rise
and go about peacely, nameless in the new dust.

    Perhaps, because not having an end, for its end, these words say
something, and don’t ask for anything:

(1997)

you bring a bit of bread and some wine to feed the vigil

IV.

    you bring a bit of bread and some wine to feed the vigil in
the night of your soul.

    In the depths of your eyes you look at the hands that offered
up their bones to build the house and fill it with words.

    Meanwhile, the writing in the darkness grows like the flickering of
the flames, your heart keeps quiet; its tremor stops beating.

    Suddenly nobody exists anymore.

    We are alone and you only think of her. You give yourself up to
the wine of laughter and the bread of silence, and to your memories:
those thoughts that inflame your tongue and burn like the words that
consume you.

    And you want to die, and for that you write:

(1997)


V.

    one believes in writing. That writing is air, and that’s enough.

    But language inhabits the outdoors of the house, persists in human
gravity.

    Because writing is to be burdened with the procession of your life,
with the implements that do not fit into a different corner which are
not the days, that one after another are the void.

    Because death is to go and no more.

    And it is the will of love to die.

    Yes, the love of dying, the only writing:

(1997)


VII.

    remember, my soul, that we are going to die.

    It will be under the discursive rain brought by memories, that
which knots the hands to writing.

    Without complaining we will die. This will be the night and there
will be no other bed on which to die, because death is the grass of
the desire that feeds on the body.

    (and I look at the moon in the sky: a horse that bolts motionlessly)

    Remember that later, the sickle will come and we will be one in
the hands of the nocturnal shepherd:

(1997)


XIV.

    perhaps, and because of its end, these words say something.

    Already far from the world and from the hand that traces them, is
perhaps the road.

    Maybe, in some afternoon of another sky, these words will rise
and go about peacely, nameless in the new dust.

    Perhaps, because not having an end, for its end, these words say
something, and don’t ask for anything:

(1997)
Sponsors
Gemeente Rotterdam
Nederlands Letterenfonds
Stichting Van Beuningen Peterich-fonds
Ludo Pieters Gastschrijver Fonds
Lira fonds
Partners
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