Journey by Leopoldo Lugones | Poems Rethabile Likes

Journey by Leopoldo Lugones | Poems Rethabile Likes

Journey

by Leopoldo Lugones
Translated from the Spanish by Muna Lee

I met upon the road
A woman and a man,
And a tree that genuflected
Before the wind;
Farther on, a browsing burro;
And farther still, a heap of stone.
And in three thousand leagues of my spirit
There was no more than these:
A tree, a stone, a burro,
A woman, and a man.



Comments

Ah, I love the rhythms of this minimalist set of lines, with their devotion (genuflected), breath (wind), food (browsing), distance (three thousand leagues) and the ineffable (spirit), only to have those disappear on the horizon of five bodied things. That is neat, what a beautiful economy, what a keen understanding of the power of image!
Rethabile said…
A discovery to me, I must say. So much and so many ways to discover and learn from!