Brotherhood

Homage to Claudius Ptolemy


I am a man: little do I last
and the night is enormous.
But I look up:
the stars write.
Unknowing I understand:
I too am written,
and at this very moment
someone spells me out.


Translated from the Spanish by Eliot Weinberger


"Brotherhood" ("Hermandad"), translated by Eliot Weinberger, from Octavio Paz: Collected Poems by Octavio Paz. Copyright © 1987, 1988 by Octavio Paz and Eliot Weinberger. Reprinted with the permission of New Directions Publishing Corporation.