Jorge Luis Borges ( ) Argentina

Two Tankas

High on the summit
The whole garden is lit
By the golden light of the moon.
More precious in the shadow
Is the soft touch of your lips.

~~~~~

The sound of the bird
That the twilight is hiding
Has fallen silent.
You walk through the garden,
I know you are something missing.

*****

Dos Tankas



---------------------------------------------------------------------

Farewell

Between my love and me three hundred nights
Like three hundred walls will have to be raised
And the sea shall be like magic between us.

Nothing will remain except memories.
O afternoons brought in with suffering,
The nights aspiring to see you,
The fields on my way, the firmament
That I am seeing and losing…
Certain as marble
Your absence shall sadden other afternoons.

*****

Adios?


--------------------------------------------------------------------

The Suicide
Not a single star will be left in the sky.
The night itself will not be left.
With me will die everything
Of this intolerable universe.
I shall erase the pyramids, the medals,
The continents, the faces.
I shall erase the holdings of the past.
I shall make dust of history, dust of dust.
I am looking at the final sunset.
I am hearing the last bird.
I bequeath nothing to nobody.

*****

El Suicida