Nocturne III

by

José Asunción Silva


It was evening,

a night filled with perfumes, whispers, and the music of bird' wings;

A night

when fantastic glowworms flickered in the nuptial, humid shadows,

at my side, ever so slowly, close to me, listless and silent

as if prey to premonition of the most stinging pain

that inflamed the deep secret of your fibers,

over the path filled with flowers that stretched across the plain,

you were walking;

and the full moon

in the sky, so infinite, so unfathomable, spread its light.

And your shadow,

lean and languid,

and my shadow,

by the moon's rays silhouetted

on the path's sorrowful gravel,

were united

and were one,

but one long and lonely shadow,

but one long and lonely shadow,

but one long and lonely shadow...

Tonight,

desolate; my soul

by your death so bitterly pained and anguished,

torn from you by time, distance and the grave

upon that infinite blackness

where our voice cannot be heard,

lone and mute,

on the path I kept on walking...

And dogs braying at the moon came to my ears,

at the pale face of the moon,

and the croaking of the frogs.

I felt cold; the same chill that in your chamber

numbed your precious cheeks, hands and brow

amidst the snow-white linens

of the funereal shroud.

It was frost out of the tomb, it was the ice of the dead,

and the chillness of the void...

And my shadow,

sketched out by the paleness of the moon,

walked alone

walked alone,

walked alone upon the prairie;

and your shadow, lean and graceful,

pure and languid,

as in that warm spring evening long ago,

as in that night filled with perfumes, whispers and the music of birds' wings,

approached me and walked with mine,

approached me and walked with mine,

approached me and walked with mine... Oh embraced shadows!

Oh the shadows of the bodies mingling with the shadows of the souls!

Oh shadows that search each other in tear-filled and somber nights!



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