Open Letter — (Paris, Rome, January, 1980)

to my son

Selected Poems of Juan Gelman
 translated by Hardie St. Martin

IV:  Crestfallen my burning soul

crestfallen my burning soul
dips a finger in your name / scrawls
your name on the night’s walls /
it’s no use / it bleeds dangerously /

soul to soul it looks at you / becomes a child /
opens its breast to take you in /

protect you / reunite you / undie you /
your little shoe stepping on the

world’s suffering softening it /
trampled brightness / undone water
this way you speak / crackle / burn / and love /
you give me your nevers just like a child