Long Lost Remains

Look, hereabouts our love ceased its outpour.

Oh, leaves, you’ll fall! Oh, boughs, you’ll always soar!

Ages piled on ages since those sweet hours !

Wisteria, you still shed your flowers.

And you, wise trembling poplars, rustling high,

Has she returned to listen to your sigh ?

Awaiting her, in westward scrutiny,

You run your upward quest for eternity.

Can’t your treetops behold her swerve this way ?

D’you sense the grief in the word “yesterday” ?

The same sheltering oak tree shades the gate.

When begged, the gardener lets me in to tempt fate.

Perdurable fountain, flowing as fast

As in old times, you rush over my past.

And every nook’s like in my memories,

Unaltered through the years − luminaries.

I told the man about the grave I sought,

I had dug it singing deeply distraught.

“No such thing here,” was the reply he gave.

’Twas true. There was, in truth, nobody’s grave.

English version by Gabriela PACHIA