You who do not remember

Crossroads

My body, now that we will not be traveling together much longer
I begin to feel a new tenderness toward you, very raw and unfamiliar,
like what I remember of love when I was young –

love that was so often foolish in its objectives
but never in its choices, its intensities
Too much demanded in advance, too much that could not be promised –

My soul has been so fearful, so violent;
forgive its brutality.
As though it were that soul, my hand moves over you cautiously,

not wishing to give offense
but eager, finally, to achieve expression as substance:

it is not the earth I will miss,
it is you I will miss.

The wild iris

At the end of my suffering
there was a door.

Hear me out: that which you call death
I remember.

Overhead, noises, branches of the pine shifting.
Then nothing. The weak sun
flickered over the dry surface.

It is terrible to survive
as consciousness
buried in the dark earth.

Then it was over: that which you fear, being
a soul and unable
to speak, ending abruptly, the stiff earth
bending a little. And what I took to be
birds darting in low shrubs.

You who do not remember
passage from the other world
I tell you I could speak again: whatever
returns from oblivion returns
to find a voice:

from the center of my life came
a great fountain, deep blue
shadows on azure seawater. 

Louise Glück

El iris salvaje

Al final del sufrimiento
me esperaba una puerta.

Escúchame bien: lo que llamas muerte
lo recuerdo.

Allá arriba, ruidos, ramas de un pino vacilante.
Y luego nada. El débil sol
temblando sobre la seca superficie.

Terrible sobrevivir
como conciencia,
sepultada en tierra oscura.

Luego todo se acaba: aquello que temías,
ser un alma y no poder hablar,
termina abruptamente. La tierra rígida
se inclina un poco, y lo que tomé por aves
se hunde como flechas en bajos arbustos.

Tú que no recuerdas
el paso de otro mundo, te digo
podría volver a hablar: lo que vuelve
del olvido vuelve
para encontrar una voz:

del centro de mi vida brotó
un fresco manantial, sombras azules
y profundas en celeste aguamarina.

Versión de Eduardo Chirinos

Louis me espera desde mayo en mi librería favorita. El libro que no pude recoger, que olvidé, viene a mí como una revelación.

Aquí está el poema leído maravillosamente.