Translation:The Black Heralds (1918)/Hulls of Ice

by César Vallejo

I come every day to watch you pass,
little enchanted steamboat always far away...
Your eyes are two blond captains;
your lip is a too-brief red handkerchief
waving a farewell of blood!

I come to watch you pass; until the day,
drunk with time and cruelty,
little enchanted steamboat always far away,
the evening star will depart!

The rigging; winds that betray;
winds of a woman who passed by!
Your cold captains will give the order;
and he who will have departed will be I...