La Canción Desesperada

Your memory emerges from the night I am in
The river ties its stubborn lament to the sea
Abandoned like the docks at dawn
It's time to leave, oh abandoned

Cold corollas rain over my heart
Oh hold of debris, fierce cave of shipwrecks
In you wars and flights accumulated
From you the birds of song raised their wings

You swallowed everything, like the distance
Like the sea, like time. Everything in you was shipwreck
It was the joyful hour of assault and kiss
The hour of astonishment that burned like a lighthouse

Pilot's anxiety, blind diver's fury
murky drunkenness of love, everything in you was shipwreck

In the childhood of fog my winged and wounded soul
Lost discoverer, everything in you was shipwreck

You embraced pain, clung to desire
Sadness overcame you, everything in you was shipwreck

I pushed back the wall of shadow
I walked beyond desire and action

Oh flesh, my flesh, woman I loved and lost
To you in this humid hour, I evoke and make song

Like a vessel you harbored infinite tenderness
And infinite forgetfulness shattered you like a vessel

It was the black, black solitude of the islands
And there, woman of love, your arms welcomed me

It was thirst and hunger, and you were the fruit
It was mourning and ruins, and you were the miracle

Oh woman, I don't know how you could contain me
In the land of your soul, and in the cross of your arms!

My desire for you was the most terrible and short
The most turbulent and drunk, the most taut and eager

Cemetery of kisses, there is still fire in your tombs
still the clusters burn pecked by birds
Oh the bitten mouth, oh the kissed limbs
oh the hungry teeth, oh the entwined bodies
Oh the crazy coupling of hope and effort
in which we entwined and despaired
And the tenderness, light as water and flour
And the word barely begun on the lips
That was my destiny and in it traveled my longing
and in it my longing fell, everything in you was shipwreck
Oh hold of debris, everything fell into you
what pain you did not squeeze, what waves did not drown you
From fall to fall you still flamed and sang
standing like a sailor on the bow of a ship
You still flourished in songs, you still broke in currents
Oh hold of debris, open and bitter well
Pale blind diver, unfortunate slinger
lost discoverer, everything in you was shipwreck!
It's time to leave, the hard and cold hour
that night holds to all schedules
The noisy belt of the sea encircles the coast
Cold stars emerge, black birds emigrate
Abandoned like the docks at dawn
Only the trembling shadow twists in my hands

Ah beyond everything. Ah beyond everything
It's time to leave. Oh abandoned (2x)