Figures and Silence

Trembling hands send me into exile
Let me not ask for help
They want me to fall like night, to go and die
Let me not ask for help.

A Dream Where Silence Is Golden

The dog of winter bites my smile. On a bridge, I was naked. I wore a hat with flowers and was dragging my naked corpse that wore a hat with dead leaves.
I have had many loves—I said—but the most beautiful was my love of mirrors.

Rescue

It's always the lilac garden on the far side of the river.
If the soul asks how far it is, the answer will be:
not here, but there, on the far side of the river.
                                                                 To Octavio Paz

Tete de Jeune Fille (Odilon Redon)

To André Pieyre de Mandiargues

the rain is music
the years, silence
one night passes
my body
          will never remember again

Translated from the Spanish by Suzanne Jill Levine