I am not I

I am not I.
I am this one
walking beside me whom I do not see,
whom at times I manage to visit,
and whom at other times I forget;
who remains calm and silent while I talk,
and forgives, gently, when I hate,
who walks where I am not,
who will remain standing when I die.






~ Juan Ramon Jimenez
translated by Robert Bly

I am not I

I am not I.

I am this one
Walking beside me whom I do not see,
Whom at times I manage to visit,
And at other times I forget.

The one who remains silent when I talk,
The one who forgives, sweet, when I hate,
The one who takes a walk when I am indoors,
The one who will remain standing when I die.






~ Juana Ramon Jimenez
translated by Robert Bly

I was thinking

Who knows what is going on on the other side of each hour?

How many times the sunrise was

there, behind a mountain!

How many times the brilliant cloud piling up far off

was already a golden body full of thunder!

This rose was poison.

That sword gave life.

I was thinking of a flowery meadow

at the end of a road,

and found myself in the slough.

I was thinking of the greatness of what was human,

and found myself in the divine.

~ Juan Ramon Jimenez

from The Winged Energy of Delight

translated by Robert Bly

unpetalled

.

I unpetalled you, like a rose,

to see your soul,

and I didn't see it.

.

But everything around

--horizons of lands and of seas--

everything, out to the infinite,

was filled with a fragrance,

enormous and alive.

.

~ Juan Ramon Jimenez

translated by Stephen Mitchell

.