Translated from the Spanish by Emily Toder
Clarity has always tempted me
And clarity has at times denied me
Like a bird that ?ies in dreams
And falls and keeps falling without ?ying like dead weight
Clarity has always tempted me
Especially the clarity of elder leaves
Also the clarity of the pebble
And of ?r branches
And the fast and ?erce clarity of the salamander
I have wanted to have clarity to see
The clumps of newly-turned earth
And also to see the plough itself
And the water that runs clear through the ditch
Clarity I have wanted to revisit so many dreams
And glories and powers and various circumstances and people
And to be present in air and at the same time in ?re
Clarity has always tempted me
The clarity of being wholly in each ?ower
In each wound or ruling or seed
I have wanted clarity to live
And when ?nally I could de?ne the clarity that I sought
I realised how much fatigue and down and red earth
And confusion and oblivion are necessary to comprehend clearly
And being here with total lucidity sitting on the side of the road
Stoking the ?re under the sky and the dust of the hours
And as clarity has always tempted me
That time when under an open and spread out sun
The waters of the bay began to grow choppy
Until acquiring a purplish tint
And a large white bird suddenly emerged from between the clouds
Beating its wings and ?uttering smoothly around
I decided that it was the moment to toss these words to the sea
Because the clarity that I sought so much
Is only in certain silences
In certain blank spaces
Before and after few and trivial words
