Estive no local do nosso encontro final.
Nada mudara, os jardins continuavam bem cuidados,
As fontes borrifavam em constante borbotão;
Nenhum sinal de que algo havia terminado
E nada que me instruísse na alheação.
As aves que nos ramos vibravam, indiferentes,
Cantando um êxtase que eu não podia partilhar,
Brincavam matreiras com minha mente. Certamente,
Nesses gozos dor nenhuma haveria a suportar
Ou qualquer discórdia que abalasse a brisa insistente.
Porque o lugar era exatamente o daquele dia
A sua ausência pareceu uma força primeva,
Pois por debaixo de toda a suavidade havia
Um trepidar de terremoto: fonte, aves, relva,
Tudo, só de pensar em seu nome, estremecia.
Trad.: Nelson Santander
Absence
I visited the place where we last met.
Nothing was changed, the gardens were well-tended,
The fountains sprayed their usual steady jet;
There was no sign that anything had ended
And nothing to instruct me to forget.
The thoughtless birds that shook out of the trees,
Singing an ecstasy I could not share,
Played cunning in my thoughts. Surely in these
Pleasures there could not be a pain to bear
Or any discord shake the level breeze.
It was because the place was just the same
That made your absence seem a savage force,
For under all the gentleness there came
An earthquake tremor: Fountain, birds and grass
Were shaken by my thinking of your name.