Juan Ramón Jiménez, "Night Piece"

[the-grynne.livejournal.com]

NIGHT PIECE

    The ship, slow and rushing at the same time, can
            get ahead of the water
but not the sky.
The blue is left behind, opened up in living silver,
and is ahead of us again.
The mast, fixed, swings and constantly returns
--like an hour hand that points
always to the same hour--
to the same stars,
hour after hour black and blue.
The body as it daydreams goes
towards the earth that belongs to it, from the other earth
that does not. The soul stays on board, moving
through the kingdom it has owned from birth.


JUAN RAMON JIMENEZ

Translated from the Spanish by Robert Bly