Between leaving and staying ( A poem by Octavio Paz)
Entre irse y quedarse duda el día,
enamorado de su transparencia.
La tarde circular es ya bahía:
en su quieto vaivén se mece el mundo.
Todo es visible y todo es elusivo,
todo está cerca y todo es intocable.
Los papeles, el libro, el vaso, el lápiz
reposan a la sombra de sus nombres.
Latir del tiempo que en mi sien repite
la misma terca sílaba de sangre.
La luz hace del muro indiferente
un espectral teatro de reflejos.
En el centro de un ojo me descubro;
no me mira, me miro en su mirada.
Se disipa el instante. Sin moverme,
yo me quedo y me voy: soy una pausa.
Today, I gift from us. We found this stunning poem by Octavio Paz which speaks to pausing, and the time between…we searched for translations and, in the belief of our chief translator, none were suitable to speak to the meaning of this poem. So please find below our own translation, we hope you take the words with you today, and can savour them as much as we did in translation:
The day hesitates between staying and leaving,
in love with its transparency.
The circular night is now just a bay:
in its silent cradling, the world rocks back and forth.
All is visible and yet elusive,
all is close yet unreachable.
Papers, the book, the glass, the pencil
rest under the shade of their name.
The beating time repeating at my temple
the same stubborn syllable made of blood.
The light makes the wall indifferent, a spectral sparkle theatre.
In the centre of an eye I discover myself, it does not look at me, I see myself in its gaze.
The instant vanishes. Without me moving,
I stay and I leave: I am a pause.
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