VIII

A light and a soothing cup of tea
Accompany a soliloquy of love
Unable to restrain the torrents of our past
I gather reminiscences of your astray voice

We also used to drink spirits, wine and tea
Our small flat near Marble Arch
Was the locus of self-celebrity and wealth
I still see you lying on my shoulder before noon

Now I glimpse I was never in your plans
Whereas I toiled two years for your sake
You hardly endured three months for us
Effort that impaired the child we never had

Of you the struggle, the sweetness and the insight
The bliss, the elation and the faith
Talents that inhabit a besieged empire
Reduced to rubble by your fallen sword

IX

Have I to resign the fortress and the creek
I shaped out from our milk and dust
To the waves that encircle your impulse?
Have I to allow the seed of new idylls?

Without litany or pomp
I remember you when you forget me most
Relying on odd relatives and guests
That open misleading shortcuts to your bliss

The oracle of your prompt return
Lies crushed by your undying loathe
What was accomplished fades away
As our kiss in nineteen-ninety-eight

I had prepared you for the Eden
But if this is the final step for your breakthrough
For your current and arriving feat
I shall destroy my harp without remorse

X

Out the abysses of melancholy
And the voids of your desertion
Without the distraught melody of a lute
I hear echoes of your caring voice

From the streams of Saint James Park
To the alleys of Bucaramanga
Your silhouette alone turned this desert into a sod
The safe-haven of the camel and the rose

Over the trails of Buffalo and Oporto
Before the white-shedding birches of our lake
And the yellowed-cap elms of Central Park
We used to grasp our hands in endless walks

The vaults of the Lincoln Cathedral
The airy arches of the Mezquita
And the slender columns of Grenada
Will be justly renowned by your return

XI

On the eve of a new pledge
After vast months of denied grief
Of arduous fight and cosmic plead
I had come to relinquish my felicity and wealth

I had come to accept a loveless earth
By acquitting you of your indolence and leave
The end of gloomy strolls and bitter moons
Cross I had to bore from Chester to New Hampshire

The orb then summoned us to Paris
On the eve of your birthday and Cristina’s
A splendor gleamed in the horizon
To appease our tempest s and the ache

Forged in the coal of Latin words
We will make English the language of true love
It will take only two of us
With no country, with no child

XII

She went once to build a hut
Near a black forest and a lake
She strayed so far she barely heard
When I called her for an embrace

She didn’t answer, didn’t talk
She stood, and then she ran away
Hiding in a farm, delaying her return
Though I searched her everywhere

I asked at her mother’s house
Whether she was still around
She told me she was doing well
And gave me a token in return

Sudden and swift and light as that
The ties of marriage were crushed
And I learned of death and resurrection
Prior to the grave

XIII

Every poet chants to Leander
Whose zeal went beyond endurance
Crossing the Hellespont at night
He used to reach the arms of Hero

A torch was his lighting-house
Until one night a storm broke out
Without direction he strayed away
At dawn they found his cadaver on a shore

I, who is about to cross the ocean
For the peril of a embrace
Shall reveal the tragedy of Leander
As known to lovers who risked all

His torch was never quenched
And no storm broke out in the night
Leander died heart-broken in the stream
For Hero had dismissed his love

XIV

At thirty I brought you from Saône
The woman whom I loved the most
On the road from Fatima to Lourdes
You washed away her ire with tears

This morning as ever I rely on you
Out of pangs and tribulations
From Florida to San Gil and Osh
Your shelter lengthened our joy

Crying from the very depths
I beg you for a peace of mind
You alone can reunite us in Montmartre
Or bring us to a more persistent heart

As a child I used to kneel before you
For a sister who was about to depart
Though I lost her in the waves of time
Her love stayed, her eternity and being

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