Que Son Esas Palabras

Twenty years they lived together, side by side,
twenty years of thistle and grain, of threshing,
the mill wheel kept time,
and winter slept in the yellow ivy.
He took care of everything, with quiet prudence,
both the livestock and the fine harvest,
she crossed the courtyard, like a spur wheel,
between the water well and the flour table.
In harsh winters, in sunny summers,
for twenty years, they kept each other company,
she never asked if he had loved her,
what are those words, she was there and he had her.
He didn't need a more detailed notion,
than knowing her name, and he knew the name,
he called her Carmen in the shadow and the evening,
when the light is a late wick lamp.
Twenty years they lived together, side by side,
hardly seeing a doctor, laborer, settler, artist,
the train passed far away like a childhood tale,
and he never wondered if he truly loved her.
She died while polishing the silverware,
in the wide silence of the empty afternoon,
he suddenly learned, like frost falls,
that love is love, even if it's not said.