Wall

Simple and extraordinary wall.
Wall without weight and without color:
a hint of air in the air.

From a hillside, birds pass,
light passes like a swing,
the edge of winter passes
like a breath of summer.
A leafy wind
and embodied shadows pass.

But a sigh does not break bounds,
arms do not meet,
and no heart-to-heart is made flesh.


Translated from the Spanish by Maria Giachetti


"Wall," translated by Maria Giachetti, from Gabriela Mistral: A Reader by Gabriela Mistral. English translation copyright © 1993 by Maria Giachetti. Reprinted with the permission of White Pine Press.