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Poetry · Reflection

JULIO CORTAZAR ~ THE BRIEF LOVE/EL BREVE AMOR

30 October 2011

THE BRIEF LOVE
How smoothly and how sweetly
she lifts me from the bed where I was dreaming
of profound and fragrant fields,

she runs her fingers over my skin and sketches me
in space, suspended, until the kiss
alights curved and recurrent

a slow flame kindling
the rhythmic dance of the bonfire
weaving us together in flashes, in spirals,
going and coming in a storm of smoke…

(So why is
what’s left of me, afterwards,
just a sinking into ashes
without a goodbye, with nothing more than a gesture
of letting our hands go free?)
Julio Cortazar

EL BREVE AMOR
Con qué tersa dulzura

me levanta del lecho en que soñaba

profundas plantaciones perfumadas,
me pasea los dedos por la piel y me dibuja

en le espacio, en vilo, hasta que el beso

se posa curvo y recurrente
para que a fuego lento empiece

la danza cadenciosa de la hoguera

tejiédose en ráfagas, en hélices,

ir y venir de un huracán de humo-
(¿Por qué, después,

lo que queda de mí

es sólo un anegarse entre las cenizas

sin un adiós, sin nada más que el gesto

de liberar las manos ?
JULIO CORTAZAR

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