Translation:The Black Heralds (1918)/The Narrow Loge

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The Black Heralds (1918)
by César Vallejo, translated from Spanish by Wikisource
The Narrow Loge
César Vallejo1832803The Black Heralds — The Narrow Loge1918Wikisource

Closer, closer. I am very well.
It’s raining; and it imposes a cruel limitation.
Move forward, move your foot forward.

Until what hour will these hands
that imitate a bramble patch not raise the curtains?
Do you see? The others, so comfortable, such effigies.
Closer here, closer here!

It’s raining. And today another ship
will pass loaded with funeral ribbons;
it will be like a black and deformed thread
uprooted from the sphinx-like illusion.

Closer here, closer here. You are at the border
and the boat can drag you to sea.
Ah, immobile curtains, symbolic...
My applause is a feast of black roses:
To cede my place!
And in the clamor of my resignation,
a thread of infinity will bleed.

I must not be so well;
Move forward, move your foot forward!