by César Vallejo
At the end of the battle,
the combatant dead, a man approached him
and said to him: “Don’t die, I love you so much!”
But the corpse, alas! kept on dying.
Two more came up to him and repeated:
“Don't leave us! Be brave! Come back to life!”
But the corpse, alas! kept on dying.
Twenty, a hundred, a thousand, five hundred thousand appeared,
crying out: “So much love, and no power against death!”
But the corpse, alas! kept on dying.
Millions of individuals surrounded him,
with a common plea: “Don't leave us, brother !”
But the corpse, alas! kept on dying.
Then, all the inhabitants of the earth
surrounded him; the corpse looked at them sadly, deeply moved;
he got up slowly,
embraced the first man; started to walk...
translated by Clayton Eshleman
From:
Resistencia: Poems of Protest and Revolution
Copyright ©:
2020, Tin House, Portland, Oregon
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