Orides Fontela

ELEGY (I)

But what use is the bird?
We contemplate it inert.
We touch it in its magic flashing of feathers.
What use is the bird if we
possess it denatured?

What was flight is, here, now,
lethal concretion and
paralyzed color, silent, clearcut iris,
what was infinite is, here, now,
weight and form, fixed, ludic verb

what was bird and is
the object: game
of an innocence that
contemplates and revives it
-child groping
a scheme of distances
in the bird-

but what use is the bird?

The bird is no use. Arrhythmic
soft wings settle.

[Trans. Chris Daniels]

 

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